Throughout the course of the 2011-2012 season, MVNU sophomore forward Caleb Williams will write a weekly blog about what is happening with the team.

"Bump in the Road" (posted on January 23, 2012)

Going into this week, we had some momentum and a two-game winning streak. We were focusing on starting our climb up the MCC standings one game at a time. On Tuesday night, we made the long trek to Goshen College. Conference road games are always challenging and this game fit the bill. Interesting side note: Goshen College did not play the National Anthem before the game; they played America the Beautiful instead. First time I had ever experienced this or even heard of this, so that was definitely an interesting start to the evening. The game started off in a very helter skelter fashion, and we got out to a 9-8 lead. However, Goshen made a big run and took a commanding lead toward the end of the first half. We battled back to end the half and cut the lead down to 15 or so. The coaches made good halftime adjustments and we brought a renewed energy into the second half. We came storming back, cutting the lead to 4, 54-50, with just over 10 minutes to play in the half. This was as close as we got, though, and Goshen pulled away in the last 10 minutes. We turned the ball over a few too many times against Goshen, and they beat us by 12 in the rebounding battle. It is almost impossible to win on the road in the MCC when you turn the ball over and get outrebounded, and rebounding and taking care of the ball have been a focus of ours all year and we must continue to improve upon these things in the final weeks of our season.

On Saturday, we played at Grace. We actually drove up Friday afternoon so that we could practice in Grace's gym Friday evening. In the process of our commute, we drove right into the snow storm that hit Indiana and Ohio this weekend. The storm turned an estimated three-and-a-half hour drive into closer to a five-and-a-half hour drive, but we made it to Grace safe. Grace is a very good team, ranked 4th in the nation to be specific. They have a great compliment of players. They have a very good guard, wing players who are very active, and are big in the post. They go 6'11, 6'11, and 6'7 in the post. This makes it tough for any opponent to play against. Adding to the game was the extra excitement about the return of Coach Moore and our coaching staff to their alma mater. Everywhere we went, someone was stopping to talk to one of our coaches. We held our own to start the game as the score was 6-6 at the first media timeout. From that point on, Grace took control of the game. They pressured our guards very hard, and used their size in the post to make it hard for our posts to get position and score. We continued to battle and got the lead under 15 going into the half. Grace started the second half strong and we couldn't get much closer than 20 points the rest of the game.

We are now left with eight games remaining in the regular season. We are currently last in conference standings, and the top eight teams make the conference tournament. We are now in a point where we need to finish strong in order to give ourselves a chance to reach the conference tournament.

The Week Ahead:

We return to the Physical Education Center on Tuesday, January 24th as Taylor travels to Mount Vernon for a 7:00 tip. Taylor beat us by seven at their place in our first meeting which took place back before Christmas break. On Saturday, we head back west as we travel to Marion, Indiana to square off against Indiana Wesleyan. That game is slated to tip off at 3:00.

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Peace be the Journey,
Caleb Williams #5

Feedback is always welcomed, so feel free to email me at cwilli10@mail.mvnu.edu or follow me on Twitter: @5CWill.

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