OPSU Hosts Home Opener Tuesday Night

Goodwell, Okla.-After starting their seasons off on the road last weekend
the Aggies will take to their home court Tuesday, Nov. 18 against Barclay
College; the women will play at 5:30 p.m. and the men will follow at 7:30
p.m.

Both the Aggie men and women suffered two-game losses in tournaments over
the weekend. The women competed in the Fairfield Inn/Pizza Hut Classic
tournament hosted by Missouri Southern State in Joplin, Mo. last Friday and
Saturday. They took an 83-47 loss against MSS in Friday’s season opener and
battled an overtime loss against Evangel University on Saturday losing
65-57.

OPSU Head Women’s Basketball Coach Charles Terry said this, "We had a very
bad night shooting on Friday but played hard; we had given into the moment.
On Saturday we played much better but made a lot of mental errors that cost
us in the last two minutes of regulation and the overtime."

Despite the losses the Aggies have a lot to look forward to this season.
Tatyana Bell looks to be a strong defensive force for the Aggie women
earning a double-double in Friday’s game with 13 points and 10 rebounds; she
brought down nine rebounds against Evangel and totaled three steals for the
weekend.

Terry continues optimistically, "We have things to work out as a team, but
we will get better. I really like our team; if and when we put it together
we will compete and that’s what we want to do, compete and give ourselves a
chance to win games."

The OPSU men’s team also dropped two games in the ASU Ed Messbarger Tip-Off
Classic in San Angelo, Texas with a 97-60 loss against Angelo State on
Friday and a close shootout against Eastern New Mexico that resulted in a
102-94 loss for the Aggies.

Jerry Olson, Head Men’s Basketball Coach stated, "Angelo State is a very
good team and already looks to compete for the LSC championship. Our guys
came out kind of gun-shy on Friday night and ASU’s defense forced us to take
bad shots which they were able to capitalize on."

For the men, Antonio Manns, Jr. lit up the scoreboard with game-highs of 17
points against ASU and a whopping 36 points against ENMU. For the weekend
Manns went 48 percent from the field, 50 percent beyond the arc and 85
percent from the line.

Olson added, "Against ENMU we competed a lot harder and our effort was
really good. Antonio played great on offense and looks to be a mismatch
problem for other teams. Overall we’ve got to improve on defense and clean
up the mistakes. Our guys are still trying to learn each other, but we’ve
got to start reversing the basketball and stop teams with defense. It might
be fun for the fans but it’s rough on the coaches."

Aggie fans can see both teams in action this week as the men start a
ten-game home streak. The men and women take on Barclay College Tuesday
evening and the men will play again on Thursday, Nov. 20 against Northern
New Mexico College; tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.

Fans are invited to take part in the Aggies CAN Make a Difference Food Drive
by bringing non-perishable food items to all home basketball games between
Nov. 18 and Dec. 18. All donations will benefit the Loaves and Fishes Food
Cupboard of Guymon.

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Justine Gaskamp