The Collegian

Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Andrew Dodson

The Charger men's basketball team opened their season in exciting fashion Wednesday night as they took all allotted 40 minutes to put away the feisty Flyers of Lewis University, 68-65.

"They're tough," senior captain Tony Gugino said of the Flyers. "They're just like us -they just play."

After streaming through the tunnel of youngsters for their first introductions of the year, the team gathered in a circle and swayed to get pumped up.

Lewis jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but thanks the Chargers' stout defense, they were able to battle back to a 5-5 tie and press on to take control of the game.

"We won this game on the defensive end," head coach John Tharp said.

Sophomore guard Joe Caruso hit a big three-pointer and followed it up with a steal and a lay-up to put Hillsdale in the lead for the first time at 19-18. Gugino, who led the team in scoring with 14 points, said the Charger guard-play was crucial in slowing down some quick and able shooters on Lewis' team.

"I really give this one to the guards," Gugino said. "Defensively, I got to give it to our guards. Evan [senior Evan Steward] was unreal. We were able to stop them in transition."

The game went back and forth in the first half until halftime showed a one-point Flyer advantage, 38-37. The Chargers buckled down and got it down in a hard-fought second half.

Senior guard Keith MacKenzie offered his take on what finished Lewis off.

"I think defensive stops near the end of the game did it," he said. "Our offense wasn't really flowing, but we had some stops - that got it done."

Tharp said his team picked it up in the second half.

"Our second half defense was the key to the game," he said.

While the defense started the season with a bang, the offense didn't demonstrate the same fluidity. Tharp explained.

"We didn't look very crisp on offense," he said. "We struggled shooting."

MacKenzie said it will all come with time.

"It's just early," he said. "We haven't played together that much yet. Once we get a few games under our belt we'll get adjusted -that's expected this time of year."

Despite some offensive woes, the chemistry was there and new players contributed to the team's effort.

"It really wasn't bad for our first game," MacKenzie said. "For our first actual game I thought we did a decent job of playing together - distributing, getting each others' backs out there."

Gugino said the team played together even better than he expected and said it extends beyond basketball.

"I liked it," he said. "I was a little bit surprised. We hadn't faced a whole lot to this point. I think it has a lot to do with our team chemistry off the floor - we're always hanging out together. It almost looks like we've been playing together awhile."

The Chargers look to use that cohesiveness as they head to the University of Indianapolis Saturday.

"We'll keep our same principles and mentality," he said. "We really work just one game at a time. We'll get a good sweat in tomorrow and go from there."

MacKenzie said Hillsdale is looking to make a statement this weekend.

"There's a revenge factor from last year," he said. "We want to show them we're on top of the GLIAC and try to prove it out there."

Indy defeated the Chargers last season, the team will look to come out with a different result this time around.

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