SSU to face (RV) Indiana-South Bend on road
There's no time to rest for the Shawnee State men's basketball program.
Fresh off of a 16-point comeback victory where Michael Hunter's squad overcame a 61-45 deficit with just under 14 minutes to play en route to claiming an 83-78 win over No. 5 Georgetown, Shawnee State (1-2) will face another task ahead of it when the Bears take on their third consecutive opponent who is receiving votes or higher in the NAIA Men's Basketball Coaches Poll in Indiana-South Bend for a contest that will occur at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon in South Bend, Ind.
For Hunter, the contest is simply another tune-up toward competing for the Shawnee State men's basketball program's ultimate goals of conference and national championships.
"It's another tough opponent that we're facing on the road," Hunter said. "We're just trying to prepare for what they'll bring to the table as best as we can as we continue to prepare ourselves and grow as a team. IU-South Bend has been a tournament team for the past four years, so they know what it takes to get there and they will be seen at the national tournament. We scheduled this game knowing that was going to be the case. Scott Cooper is a good friend of mine from our time back to our working camp days at Ohio Northern, and he is a great coaching mind. I know the type of basketball that he coaches, and it's going to be a tough game for us. We're just excited for the opportunity."
Diving into Indiana South-Bend
Indiana South-Bend's success as of late follows a similar path to Shawnee State's own rise as a men's basketball program.
Over the previous four seasons, the Titans made an NAIA National Tournament appearance in all four campaigns (2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23) while winning 25 games each in the 2019-20 and 2021-22 seasons as well as 23 games last season. In the year that IU-South Bend didn't win at least 20 games, over three-quarters of its season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic -- but the Titans still showed excellent preparation, going 7-1 in its eight games and winning the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) Tournament for the second year in a row at that time.
The Titans are out to a 3-2 start this season under 11th-year head coach Scott Cooper, who has led Indiana-South Bend to a 108-27 overall record since the start of the 2019-20 season behind a balanced offensive attack that is certainly on display this year.
6-0 junior guard Quentez Columbus (18 points, 3.2 assists, 1.6 steals, 47.8 percent shooting, 53.3 percent three-point mark), 6-9 senior forward Dejon Barney (17 points, 9.2 rebounds, 3.4 blocks, 53.1 percent shooting) and 6-6 junior wing Jylen Petty (13.2 points, five rebounds, 52.1 percent shooting and 42.1 percent three-point mark) are the IUSB players averaging double figures, but five additional players behind them are averaging at least 4.2 points per contest in what is a highly-proficient offensive attack.
"That pops out at you immediately when you at the stats," Hunter said. "They've got five guys playing significant minutes who have shot 45 percent or better from the field, so we're really going to have to be on our Ps and Qs defensively. I think we've played solid defense so far this year, it's just going to have to continue if we want to come out with the victory (Saturday). They're elite offensively. Usually, you have two or three guys on the floor that can score at a time, but at any given moment, any one of their starting five can go off for double-figures. We have to be able to lock in on the scouting report and be ready to slow those guys down in order to come out with the win."
Reviewing Georgetown
In Shawnee State's 83-78 victory over Georgetown, the Bears, simply put, executed the so-called 'little things.'
After shooting less than 50 percent from the free throw line against Bethel, SSU went an outstanding 18-of-21 (85.7 percent) from the free throw line against Georgetown -- including 12 consecutive makes to end the five-point win over the Tigers. The Bears also did a masterful job on the glass -- claiming a 25-24 advantage over Georgetown on the glass just three days after posting a minus-12 in that area against Bethel, who posted 49 rebounds to SSU's 37.
"Bethel was a hiccup for us," Hunter said. "We overlooked some things as far as their athletes and size. We did a good job defensively, but we just weren't able to close those possessions out. Georgetown has the size and athleticism, so we just really honed in on that, and we did a great job. Holding them to nine offensive rebounds, when they normally get close to double that, and holding them to less than 30 rebounds when they normally get 40 to 45 rebounds, is a testament to everybody's effort. The guys did a great job competing and executing on that detail in particular."
Keith Germain, who posted a career-high 30 points and added in eight rebounds in Tuesday's victory and is averaging 25.7 points, eight rebounds, 1.7 blocks and a steal per game while shooting 56.3 percent from the field, has been fantastic all year, but Tyreke Johnson, a former Second-Team National Junior College Athletic Association All-American under Hunter at Lakeland Community College, was also critical in the victory.
In Shawnee State's 15-1 spurt that helped the Bears take the lead for good against the No. 5-ranked Tigers, Johnson scored 10 points during that late second half push and ultimately finished with 18 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, 4-of-6 shooting from three-point range and a 4-of-4 clip from the free throw line.
The Woodstock, Ga. native has averaged 21 points and six rebounds in Shawnee State's last two outings against Bethel and Georgetown and shot 59.1 percent from the floor in those two well-contested and outstanding affairs that will certainly rank among the NAIA's top slate of games played so far.
"Tyreke was a junior college All-American, and he has won a lot in his high school and college career," Hunter said. "He took some time away from basketball, and I think that the break helped him reset. He had to remember who he was, and it's taken him a while to start heading in that direction again, but I feel like this is the player that I coached when he was in junior college, where he was conference player of the year and an All-American. His performance was well-deserved. He's put in the work."
In the backcourt alongside Johnson, guards John Dawson, Elkin Ramirez and Tre Beard were huge from a facilitating standpoint -- as the trio notched 10 assists to just two turnovers in Tuesday's victory.
"It's an older group as far as those guys go," Hunter said. "John's a senior, Tyreke is an older junior, and Elkin and Tre are juniors as well. We're blessed to have that experience in the backcourt. They are all dependable guards with winning attitudes and mindsets who take care of the basketball, and when Elkin and Tre come off of the bench, we don't really lose anything. Both of those guys can really shoot it in addition to passing the ball."
J.R. Lumsden, Tony Webb, Jr., Damon Charles, and AJ Belton all provided key minutes in the victory to help the Bears notch a huge triumph that could play large in its resume down the road. Still, IU-South Bend presents new challenges -- and yet another test that Shawnee State, according to Hunter, can't relax on if the Bears want to build on Tuesday's success.
"It's definitely a stepping stone," Hunter said of the Georgetown victory. "We talked to our guys and said, 'Hey, that was a great win, an exciting win, and great in terms of where we want to go, but we can't rest on that, because IU-South Bend is just going to brace a little bit harder now. It shows that we've had some earlier struggles and that we're going to be ready to go. In the Georgetown game, we really picked up some crucial learning experiences, and we're going to take some of the things we picked up during Tuesday's contest and apply it to Saturday."
And according to Hunter, he believes that the Bears have a larger ceiling that they've yet to reach.
"We've got another level to take it to," Hunter said. "We're hoping to see that on Saturday. We've implemented some more things, put in some more things, and coached up some things that we've been working on. We're excited for the challenge that IU-SB will present, and we're ready to compete in what will be another tough contest that will prepare us."
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