Photo via @morehousebasketball

By: Rece Allen, Associate Sports Producer

The Morehouse Maroon Tigers lost their season opener, at home, in overtime to the Palm Beach University Sailfish. A combination of shooting struggles, lack of focus, and a late whistle led to the Sailfish forcing the game to overtime.

With under five seconds left in the game, the Maroon Tigers were up 72-70. The Sailfish pushed the ball down the floor and the ball was shot and missed but a late whistle was blown to call a foul on the Maroon Tigers. 

The crowd erupted with boos directed at the officials, as the Sailfish were able to tie the game at 72 with two free throws to force overtime. The Maroon Tigers would go into overtime only scoring four points, to the Sailfish 14 and would lose the game 86-76. 

Throughout the game the team had its struggles, but a big key in today’s loss was the Maroon Tigers not being able to close out the game effectively to secure a win. The team was winning by 16 points midway through the second half of the game and allowed the lead to be taken away. 

“We’ve got to focus more, the whole game,” Coach Whittler said in his post-game interview with the Maroon Tiger. “We gave up a lot of easy baskets down the stretch and second chance opportunities off rebounds too.”

The poor free throw effort down the stretch led to the blown lead. The team shot 22 for 37 from the line, 59%, while missing big free throws to help close the game out in regulation. 

“We got to focus on making our free throws because if we make free throws, we close the game out. I told the guys we have to learn how to finish games, and you finish them by rebounding and making free throws at the end, and that’s what we didn’t do.”

Maybe the biggest factor in the missed free throws and blown lead for the Maroon Tigers was fatigue, according to Coach Whittler. The team chose to play a full court press-man defense for the majority of the game, which was a key factor to the Maroon Tigers gaining a 16-point lead in the second half, but evidently may have been their demise.  

“I think the guys got a little fatigued…We pressed a lot to get the advantage, which we did, but I think fatigue was a little bit of it. But also, focus. It’s these guys’ first game at home, the crowd was pretty solid, the environment was great, but I think we kind of lost mental focus.”

Looking forward to the next game, Coach Whittler wants his team to be able to focus more in these moments to prevent an outcome like in today’s game. 

Being that this is a new team compared to last year, Whittler believes the players are meshing well. Coach Whittler has no worry about the team because he sees that the players all care about each other. It is a long season, and they will continue to get better as the season progresses. 

The Maroon Tigers will host the Embry-Riddle University Eagles in Forbes Arena Saturday at 2pm for the last game in the South Regional Challenge.  

Edited By: Kobe Scales, Sports Editor