So much for a tune-up game. The Bisons won in unconvincing fashion on Tuesday night against an inferior opponent, beating CBC 78-69 but trailing the game with as few as 13 minutes to play.
Trent Morgan had another solid shooting performance, finishing with a career-high 28 points on just 13 field goal attempts. Morgan’s scoring efficiency has been particularly impressive of late, but I think he’ll still need to prove he can carry that over against GSC opposition on a consistent basis. Kevin Brown filled up the box score with 18 points, 9 boards and 7 assists in 31 minutes while only committing two personal fouls. It’s good to see a game like that from him, regardless of the opponent. Steven Barnett was the team’s only other double-digit scorer, notching exactly 10.
The Bisons won the rebounding battle fairly decisively, but their shooting and ballhandling were collectively rather spotty, especially if you factor out Trent Morgan. They made just 13 of 23 free throws (56.5%), although it was a poor team effort rather than any individual’s fault. Sam Brown and Stephen Blake missed their only attempts. Kirk Porter and Brian Howard were both 1-2. Morgan and K-Brown missed three apiece in multiple attempts.
I tried to watch part of the game on the Penn Atlantic site and paid $5.50 for that privilege. The video quality was somewhat poor (compared to YouTube and other streaming video sites) but ultimately acceptable. My standards are probably pretty low on that, since I was happy just to see any video at all. Streaming worked relatively well, and I only had to buffer a few times on my broadband wireless connection. However, the audio was simply unbearable because of poor mixing (or, more likely, no mixing at all). Crowd noise completely drowned out the announcing team, and I couldn’t bear watching more than a few minutes without audio. I won’t be trying this again anytime soon unless the price comes down or the quality improves. I’m not holding my breath for either, since I’m sure it’s expensive to produce even a bare bones broadcast when you consider that the internet audience may have consisted of only me.
The only thing I really noticed from the video was the rather tame Rhodes crowd. Do the students really sit though the game now, or were my eyes deceiving me? Reported attendance was just 1122, half what it usually was during the team’s peak while I was a student. Is this a post-Hall effect, or just a general decline in program interest? I’m genuinely curious now.
Anyhow, the Bisons will get another tune-up chance against Ecclesia on Saturday.
jfwiii.net 
CB may traditionally be “inferior”, but this years team is not. At least two if not three of the CBC players could start for the Bisons. HU was lucky to come out of this one with a V. Look for them to be dropped from the schedule if they keep improving 🙂
Rowdies? What is there to say. They are a joke if not an embarrassment. More positive support and noise comes out of the “old folks” section.
You’re probably right about CBC’s talent. They lost by ~20 to OBU, I think, which is not a terrible loss against a good team, and they’ve won plenty of other games against lesser competition. I guess it’s too easy for me to lump them in with all the other non-NCAA schools on teams’ schedules.
Hate to hear that about the Rowdies. Those four years were a lot of fun for me, and it wouldn’t have been the same without a packed Rhodes Field House.
Mostly the Rowdies just sit around waiting for someone to get their 4th or 5th foul so they can do their trite 1,2,3.. etc. Not much positive support for the Bisons.
It was good that the pep band was there last night. Can’t remember when they last showed up for a non-C game.