Men Kickoff Basketball Season With Blowout

The men's basketball team played Multnomah Bible College Yesterday, resulting in a blowout score of 129-67! In just 19 minutes of playing time Josh Wetzler lead the Owls with 20 points and nine rebounds. He was 8-10 from the field. He was the first of seven players to score in double digits. Myles Daley contributed 18 points, 4 assists and 3 steals. Mike Nieraeth connected on 5 of 6 attempts from the 3-point line for 15 points, while Christian Cavanaugh had 13, Ryan Fiegi had 12 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, Jguwan Hogges had 11 points and 8 assists, and Ryan Beesley scored 10 points. The men are off to a good start, shooting 64.5 % from the field and 80 % from the free-throw line. They out-rebounded Multnomah 54-22, and put on quite a show.

Christian had three dunks, two of them back-to-back at the beginning of the first half. After the second one, an elderly lady sitting in front of me turned around and said, "I'm sure glad it's not dunks-for-loot this year!" She laughed and turned around to continue her enjoyment. After thinking about it, I'm sure she would rather have it be 'dunks-for-loot' instead of 'hoops-for-loot' because the team connected on 19 of 30 3-point attempts, and no one on the women's team can dunk (not yet at least).

Despite the good performance by our talented young men, some fans began to wonder out of the gym at the beginning of the second half. When a team is up by so much, sometimes the game gets boring. I can understand. I like the exciting, close games. But, of course I want my team to win in the end, which does not always happen. It was a good start to what we hope will be a great, successful season!