Photo by: Ashley Salley
The University of Denver men’s basketball team returns home this week after a rough weekend on the road and two losses added to its record.
The Pioneers fell to Florida Atlantic 70-68 in overtime last Thursday and to South Alabama 71-33 last Sunday.
Despite the two losses, the Pioneers do have a few reasons to smile after this weekend. Senior center Adam Tanner is one of those reasons. Tanner went for a game-high 21 points in DU’s loss to FAU. And in the first half, Tanner prompted an 11-2 Pioneer run by scoring the game’s first four points.
By the end of the first half, however, FAU had crept to within one and DU held the lead 24-23. Of DU’s 21 points, Tanner made 11.
DU’s young guns give the team another reason to smile. With 6:09 remaining, sophomore forward Nate Rohnert made fourstraight free throws to tie the game at 45.
The second half continued to seesaw and came down to the last three seconds. It was freshman guard Xander McNally who sunk a threepointer to tiethe game and send it into overtime.
FAU won, with five seconds remaining, on two successful free throws by Paul Graham.
However, in the Pioneer’s game against USA there was no see-sawing, only domination by USA’s experienced upperclassmen that are undefeated at home. The USA Jaguars shot a 62.5 percentage, while DU shot for a mere 28.9 percentage.
Rohnert went for a team-high eight points and Tanner trailed with seven. McNally also led the team with five rebounds.
Prior to the weekend losses, DU was tied for first place in the Sun Belt Conference with New Orleans. But New Orleans lost its two games this weekend as well.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock usurped the first-place position from both DU and New Orleans and now leads the SBC 6-3.
Unfortunately, DU’s consolation prize was not second place either. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is in second place with a 5-4 SBC record.
The Pioneers are now 4-3 SBC and have yet to bag a conference win on the road this season. This is reminiscent of last season, as not a single conference game was won on the road. However, the Pioneers still have five SBC games left on the road and have a chance to reverse the trend of last season.
This Thursday the Pioneers will take on Florida International in the Magness Arena at 7:30 p.m. FIU won its last game over New Orleans last Sunday and are now 3-1 SBC.
DU’s first test on the road, after the weekend’s heartbreaks, will be Saturday at Western Kentucky. WKU has not lost a game at home this season and are 8-1 SBC.
