Attempting to Rebound From a February Meltdown

EAST PEORIA — After a tremendous 19-2 start (ranked six in NJCAA Division 2) for the Illinois Central College men’s basketball team, it seemed as if the Cougars had all the momentum they could ask for heading into the last month of the regular-season.

Unfortunately, something tripped them up during the last stretch of the season, starting with an avenging home loss to rival Lincoln College 86-82 on Feb. 8 (tying the season series 1-1). But the Cougars didn’t have time to dwell on that loss, the next day they loaded up the bus and headed to John Wood Community College. Again something just wasn’t clicking for the Cougars on the court, John Wood easily won the game 83-67, and for the first time all-season the Cougars had lost back-to-back games.

After a couple days off, the Cougars headed west to face-off against Southeastern Iowa Community College and hopefully get back to their winning-ways. But Southeastern Iowa had different plans in mind as they defeated the Cougars 90-76 bringing their losing streak to three games.

The long road-trip continued for the Cougars as they traveled to Danville Area Community College. The losing trend also continued for the Cougars, bringing the losing streak to four games. With the defense being a key to their losses, Coach Wysinger’s practices were going to make sure and solve that.

“Our practices have been a little more intense and just more defensive minded. We plan on getting back to our basic principles that Coach Wysinger has been preaching to us the whole season,” said sophomore forward, Dalton Wagler.

But just like any other sport, a losing streak late in the season cannot determine how the rest of the season will be played, just dust it off, move on, and focus on the next. Finally on Feb. 19 the homesick Cougars played on their home floor in a rematch against John Wood Community College.

In the first half it looked as if the Cougars were reliving a nightmare with John Wood heading into the locker room leading 35-28.

That lead started to grow larger early in the second half and peaked at 47-32, after an intentional foul was called on ICC’s Myles Boone with a little less than 13 minutes left in the game. Instead of that sucking even more momentum out of the Cougars, it did the opposite and sent a spark throughout the bench. The Cougars came charging back and cut the lead down to one with 10 minutes left in the game.

On the next possession following a miss by John Wooden the Cougars came storming down the court. Guard Eneogwe Godson Odera saw his opening, cut to the basket as Boone lobbed an alley-oop to Odera and reverse slammed it home to take their first lead of the half 60-59. The Cougars held on to win 77-73 and snapped their dreadful four-game skid.

A win like that can be the key-ingredient for turning a losing streak into a winning streak, but inconsistent play continued for the Cougars against Parkland on Feb. 22. For the second time this season, the Cougars lost to Parkland 77-73, however, this loss wasn’t the start of another downhill spiral. On Sophomore Night against ABCD Prep, the Cougars prevailed 94-81 bringing their February record to 2-5.

Although February was a very dark time for the Cougars this season, we can’t ignore the countless bright spots they’ve had.  When the Cougars play together as a team and are clicking on every aspect of the game, they are a very scary opponent. If that’s the team that shows up during the Region Tournament in March their opponent’s should not take them lightly.

“When we are playing at our absolute best, I believe that we have the potential to make a serious run at the national title,” said Wagler.