After training hard over Winter Term, the Yeomen got off to a rough start with the first two games of the spring semester. This past weekend the Yeomen fell to both the Allegheny Gators and the Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops. On Feb. 1, the Yeomen struggled to put up points in the first half on the Gators’ home court, down 19–36 at the half. Over the course of the second half, the Yeomen attempted to cut down the Gators’ lead, but did so unsuccessfully, coming no closer than 15 points behind Allegheny. Junior Andrew Fox shone as he contributed 15 points and 10 rebounds to the Yeomen’s 64–44 loss. The second highest scorer of the night, first-year Austin Little, was close behind with nine points, and sophomore Geoff Simpson had four rebounds.

Unfortunately, the Yeomen continued their losing streak at home in their next game against OWU on Feb. 4. The Battling Bishops were quick to score the beginning of the first half, but the Yeomen mustered the strength to outscore them 21–13 in the last 9:07 minutes. At the start of the second half, the Yeomen seemed as though they could pull through, but the Bishops eventually gained a lead of 30 points in the last few minutes.

“[The] toughest obstacle was containing their dribble penetration, ” Simpson said. “We had problems doing so in the first half. I thought in the second half the strength of their post players wore us down inside.” Fox, once again, put up double digits with 22 points for the Yeomen. He also had two steals, two blocks and twelve rebounds during the game. Simpson and first-year Miles Gueno each added 12 points to the score. Simpson pointed out some positive aspects of the Yeomen’s playing, noting, “We got down early in the game but never felt out of it. Even in the second half when it got away from us it wasn’t from a lack of effort on our part.”

Despite these two losses, the Yeomen look forward to the last few games of the season. Simpson summed up the team’s feelings: “I think this is part of what’s exciting for us for the rest of the season. We’re going to work on our problems from that game and hopefully beat a few teams that we’re not expected to in the last four games.”