The men’s and women’s basketball teams hit the road this weekend to take on conference foe Mount St. Joseph.
Both teams have been bitten by the injury bug, leaving their rotations shortened.
The Lady Ravens only had eight members of their team in uniform. Six players remain out with injury.
The men’s team was missing two of its starters in the frontcout, Brady Ashton and Cole Hartman. The lack of depth was too much for both teams to overcome, as the Ravens returned to Anderson 0-2 on the weekend.
In the first game of the doubleheader, the Lady Ravens were defeated 57-53. When the teams faced off earlier in the season, the Lions dropped AU 68-57.
For only the second time this season, the Lady Ravens held a halftime lead, but were unable to stave off a late MSJ rally. Ryana Watson led the Ravens with 14 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Hannah Hawkins chipped in 19 points.
“This was by far our best performance of the season and I am deeply encouraged by the progress we are making,” said AU coach Lindsay Shade in a press release. AU fell to 0-17 on the season.
In the men’s game, MSJ jumped out to an early lead and ran away in the second half, trumping AU 80-58. The Ravens fell to 9-8 on the season and 4-6 in the HCAC, while MSJ improved to 12-5 on the season and 9-1 in conference. Anderson is currently sixth in the conference standings.
While still battling injury, AU remains optimistic they can right the ship and get hot during the conference stretch run.
“It’s just that next man up mentality,” said Stanley Duncan. “Brady and Cole are big pieces to our success, but without them, I have complete trust in every one of my teammates. We will all pick it up and do what it takes to get a win tonight.”
The men’s team will travel to Franklin tonight while the women will welcome the Grizzlies into O.C. Lewis Gymnasium. Both teams will host Earlham in a doubleheader on Saturday.
As both teams continue to get healthy, things are looking up for Anderson basketball.