The Gorillas opened the season at home against Tabor College on Saturday, Nov. 14. The Gorillas pulled away with a 109-49 victory over the Tabor Bluejays.
Head Coach Kim Anderson was pleased with the team and thought they performed well on the court against the Tabor College Bluejays.
“I thought we did a good job,” Anderson said. “… I thought we played with a great deal of energy. I thought we executed pretty well offensively and then defensively I thought we did a good job of forcing them into turning the ball over which led to some second chance points for us. But it was kind of our first game out in the public and I thought our guys responded really well. The most encouraging thing I think is the execution part and the energy part.”
Five Gorillas scored in double figures including junior Gwarren Douglas Jr. scoring a game high 22 points followed by graduate student Bobby Arthur-Williams Jr. with 19 points and a team-leading eight rebounds.
“Well, there’s several (players that stood out to me),” Anderson said. “I mean really… everyone on the whole team really contributed. One of our new players, Gwarren Douglas, had 22 points. We have a lot of new players. Another of our new players, Bobby Arthur-Williams, had 19 points. Antonio Givens from last year had 15 points. New player Martin Vogts had 15 and Ike Moore had 11. And then our guards Quentin Hardrict and Ryan Pippins had… 13 assists between them… and no turnovers. So, I thought everybody played pretty well really… We played a team that we should beat but I was impressed with the fact that we beat them by a pretty large margin.”
Anderson hopes to see the team bring the same energy to their next game.
“Well, we’re gonna play a… tougher team,” Anderson said. “We’re gonna play the University of Central Oklahoma and certainly I hope to get more of the same… energy, good execution. It’s gonna be a lot tougher in this game. They’re gonna be bigger than Tabor was and we’re gonna have to play at a level higher than what we played at last weekend even though we played well. So, it’ll be a very difficult game. It’s on the road and I’m hoping we’ll go down and play well.”
The Gorillas will face the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond at the Hamilton Field House at 3:30 p.m. Next up, the team will travel to Wichita to go head to head with Newman on Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 7:30 p.m.