Men's Basketball

Cougars seek to address turnovers

The Cougars hope to come out with more energy to start the season Friday against Texas State.

Head coach James Dickey said he wants his team to be more aggressive and less hesitant than in their exhibition game against St. Thomas on Tuesday in order to get his team to get going early on.

“The two biggest disappointments when you look at the stats are (St. Thomas’) 17 offensive rebounds, and I thought we would get to the free-throw line more than 20 times,” Dickey said.

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Sophomore guard L.J. Rose penetrated the lane and found open teammates for a game-high nine assists. | Caitlin Hilton/ The Daily Cougar

The Cougars’ defense got better as the game went on by out-rebounding St. Thomas 42-32. They jammed the ball inside in the second half, the opposite of what they did in the first half of the game.

It is imperative that they be active defensively to take care of the basketball and beat the opposing team to lose balls, Dickey said.

“We had too many careless turnovers, and most of them (were) unforced,” Dickey said. “They’re a more position-defensive team and not pressing you, so we’ve got to be a lot better in preparation for Texas State.”

When the second half began, the Cougars had awoken.

“In the first half, I feel like we came out very dull, and I don’t know why, because in the locker room, it felt like we had a lot of energy,” said junior forward TaShawn Thomas. “We were talking to each other before we went down the tunnel, and we were like, ‘We’re not playing like us; we’re playing down to their level, and we should be playing at a higher level.’”

Dickey said that senior guard Tione Womack could be thrown into the mix to pick up the tempo and move sophomore guard L.J. Rhodes to the opposite guard.

“Tione really helped us win a bunch of games down the stretch last year. And Tione’s going to help us, and L.J. can move over (to shooting guard).”

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