Basketball Begins

Ryan Martin-Hachey
Contributing Writer

The first regular season basketball game for UMF was played Wednesday night, Nov. 16th, at home against the University of New England. After a tumultuous season last year where UMF ended 14 and 7, but made it to the East Division semifinal—losing by just a point to Husson University. After this disappointing end to the season, hopes run high that this will be the year UMF wins it all. The team brings back two of their best players in Jack Kane and Terion Moss, returning all-conference players from last season. Terion Moss owns the record for most points in a single game for a UMF beaver.

Coach Samuel Leal thinks very highly of this team, as well as what they will be able to do as a team this season. Leadership, effort, and teamwork come to the forefront of how this team will be successful this season:

“We have excellent leadership and commitment from a core group of returners. Their leadership and consistency will infect our incomers. It will show the way of what a discipline and winning program looks like. There is a lot of sacrifice of self-interests for the betterment of the team that we all make. Our leadership does an excellent job of exemplifying that,” Leal said.

Everyone should be excited about what damage this team will be able to do this season, given that the team as a whole has developed significantly. The offense should be explosive once again this season with Terion Moss coming back, but, even without him, the offensive play style lends heavily toward high-paced, score-heavy basketball. Exactly the kind of basketball that makes people excited to watch!

Looking for hope after such a crushing defeat is challenging but will prove fruitful in the long run, especially going into this brand-new season. Last year’s disappointing loss may have hit a lot harder if it was not for what Leal says about losses:

“I like to say winning goes to your head and losing goes to your heart. And I'd say our hearts have grown much stronger.”