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Season Opener in the Books for Men's Basketball

Season Opener in the Books for Men's Basketball

By Bryant Marks
LOUISBURG, NC -- The Richard Bland College men's basketball team opened their season on Friday with a hard-fought loss against Davidson County Community College, 95-61.

Bland and Davidson opened the contest an even match as each team traded basket after basket.  That trend would continue until halfway through the first half where Davidson took control of the momentum.  The Storm would go on a scoring run that would ultimately prove to be too much to overcome for the Statesmen in the end.  Leading the Statesmen during the game were Kenneth Southerland with 13 points, Mykai Smith with 11 points, and Zaiyen Chapman with 8 points.

With this being the first game of the 2019-20 season and the first game under new head coach Andrew Lacey, the team got a good look at what kind of competition they will be facing throughout the season in Region X and can prepare for the rest of their games, accordingly.  There were many promising areas seen throughout the game for the team that can be built upon for the future and many areas that still can be improved.  With that being said, the Statesmen can only go up from here and can be expected to bring the energy and intensity against Louisburg College on Saturday, November 2, at 4 pm.  The game will be the second game of the Louisburg Tip-Off Tournament played at Louisburg College.  Coach Lacey and the Statesmen can now shake off those first-game jitters and will be well-prepared for regional rival, Louisburg, on Saturday!