2008 Woodie Awards
Uphill battle will pay off
By Matt Lombardo
Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: Sports
If there were ever a single game that epitomizes a season, it would be Saturday's Men's basketball game at Hollinger Field House.
The already injury beleaguered Golden Rams fell to the Mansfield Mountaineers in heartbreaking fashion 60-57, after sophomore captain, shooting guard Kenneth St. George, went down late in the first half. Yet this team fought tooth and nail until the final buzzer, coming up a missed foul shot here and a rebound there away from a win that would have kept hope for the postseason alive.
Following Saturday's defeat, the Golden Rams are three games back of fourth place East Stroudsburg with two to play, meaning this team will miss the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
But that's not what this season was about. To their credit, this group of young players made it until the final week before the death nail was driven into their post-season dreams.
This season was an uphill battle from the opening tip-off against USP on Nov. 20 and turned into the mountain stages of the Tour De France following Lenwood Greenwood's season ending injury at Kutztown on Feb.9. Ralph Hegamin was already lost to a leg injury at that point.
The rash of injuries that hit this club contributed to making this one of the most frustrating seasons in head coach Dick Delaney's 20-year career here.
"You only have one day to the next, [then] somebody else goes down in practice, you have to deal with it," Delaney said. "You have to wake up and deal with it, just like people have to deal with things in life, we have to deal with this. You can't dwell on it, if you dwell on yesterday you're going to lose tomorrow."
Hegamin's injury forced Kevin Gallagher, Zach Harrison and Gerald Caldwell into more prominent roles. All three seemed to benefit from extended minutes down the stretch, and they all scored in Saturday's game.
Saturday's loss featured many of the same struggles that have faced this team all season long. St. George's injury not-withstanding, WCU continued the kind of woeful shooting that not only cost it in the last three games, but makes head coach Dick DeLaney scratch his head in disbelief.
The already injury beleaguered Golden Rams fell to the Mansfield Mountaineers in heartbreaking fashion 60-57, after sophomore captain, shooting guard Kenneth St. George, went down late in the first half. Yet this team fought tooth and nail until the final buzzer, coming up a missed foul shot here and a rebound there away from a win that would have kept hope for the postseason alive.
Following Saturday's defeat, the Golden Rams are three games back of fourth place East Stroudsburg with two to play, meaning this team will miss the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
But that's not what this season was about. To their credit, this group of young players made it until the final week before the death nail was driven into their post-season dreams.
This season was an uphill battle from the opening tip-off against USP on Nov. 20 and turned into the mountain stages of the Tour De France following Lenwood Greenwood's season ending injury at Kutztown on Feb.9. Ralph Hegamin was already lost to a leg injury at that point.
The rash of injuries that hit this club contributed to making this one of the most frustrating seasons in head coach Dick Delaney's 20-year career here.
"You only have one day to the next, [then] somebody else goes down in practice, you have to deal with it," Delaney said. "You have to wake up and deal with it, just like people have to deal with things in life, we have to deal with this. You can't dwell on it, if you dwell on yesterday you're going to lose tomorrow."
Hegamin's injury forced Kevin Gallagher, Zach Harrison and Gerald Caldwell into more prominent roles. All three seemed to benefit from extended minutes down the stretch, and they all scored in Saturday's game.
Saturday's loss featured many of the same struggles that have faced this team all season long. St. George's injury not-withstanding, WCU continued the kind of woeful shooting that not only cost it in the last three games, but makes head coach Dick DeLaney scratch his head in disbelief.
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