After a strong showing in the preseason game the hornets will face their strongest competition on Monday.
The Lyndon State College men’s basketball team beat the University of Quebec at Montreal handily on Thursday Nov. 4 by a score of 84-65. Coach Joe Krupinski was satisfied with the result.
“We did a lot of things right out there,” said Krupinski. “Everybody contributed and played their role.”
Junior guard Jose Fortunado was happy with how his team performed.
“The team gave 40 minutes of straight energy no matter who was in,” said Fortunado. “We held a pretty good team to 65 points.”
Without LSC’s best rebounder, Jason Gray, the hornets still hit the glass.
“We rebounded the ball pretty well, especially early on,” said Krupinski. “Considering that they were a bigger team, one of the best things they do is offensive rebound. We held that in check.”
Sophomore Jason Gray recently finished up the men’s soccer season as the starting goalie. He pulled down a team best 9.6 rebounds per game last season. The soccer season just ended before Monday’s regular season opener and coach Krupinski expects Gray will play.
“He’ll be playing at least a little bit on Monday,” said Krupinski. “Until we get him back in the fold I’m not sure exactly how good we can be.”
In Gray’s absence the team has discovered depth of talent that it lacked last year.
“We have a lot of players that can come in and contribute,” said Fortunado. “As opposed to last year when we caught ourselves with the same players playing for a long time causing them to wear out.”
The home opener is against the Plattsburgh State Cardinals who are ranked 22 in the nation in the preseason poll by D3hoops.com. They have four returning senior starters for a team that went 21-8 last season. Coach Krupinski sees this game as a true test to see where his team is at.
“(Plattsburgh State) are one of the best teams we are going to play all year,” said Krupinski. “It’s going to be a great test for us to see exactly where we are.”
Plattsburgh State is the reigning State University of New York Atlantic Conference champion and has made the NCAA Division III championship tournament five times since 2006. The Cardinals are led by preseason All-American Chris Ruiz as well as Errol Daniyan, Carl Munnerlyn, and Steve Thomas who were each SUNYAC All-Conference players.
Fortunado is eager to get the season started.