BILLINGS – Mick Durham is more than halfway through his first season coaching the MSU Billings basketball men, and his team sits two games above .500.
The Jackets (10-8) haven’t had a winning season in six years, but they might be well on their way despite some gut-wrenching losses, including by two points last Thursday against St. Martins, the then-No. 23 team in the nation, and in triple-overtime the game prior at Simon Fraser.
But the team feels like it has turned a corner after the way it pasted Seattle Pacific Saturday by almost 30 points.
“To turn around and take those lessons from Thursday to Saturday and build a lead, and then just kind of keep building it, was awesome,” said Durham. “I agree, I think Saturday was probably our best game.”
Naturally, players were hyped over what turned into a dunk-fest of sorts on Saturday.
“Everybody was playing together,” said forward Zharon Richmond. “And then once you build that lead, like all those dunks we had, the energy was just there and just kept flowing and flowing.”
“There’s a lot of games we played really well, had big leads but kind of squandered them,” lamented guard/forward Zack Rollins. “We feel like after Saturday we found a way to build on those leads instead of letting teams come back.”
The Yellowjackets (10-8 overall, 5-5 GNAC) are back at home Thursday against Central Washington (9-9, 3-7). Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Alterowitz Gymnasium.
