Working as a photographer and videographer for Wittenberg’s football and basketball teams has given me a unique perspective. Traveling on the road with the players, as well as seeing them compete at home, I’ve been fortunate enough to get to witness the players’ highs and lows, successes and yes, challenges.
The team I have been involved with the most this spring semester is the Wittenberg Men’s basketball team. Star point guard Trey Killens has been out for most of the season due to a concussion, in addition to other key players that have been absent this season due to injury such as Tyler Galuch and AJ Taylor. Their absence has hurt the team, with a current record of 8 wins and 15 losses. My proximity to the players has made one thing clear:
The team loves to shoot.
This season, the Tigers have a total field goal percentage of 43.3 percent, having attempted 1152 shots and only making 499. They average 33 percent on 3-point shots with a total of 131/409 shooting. Their offensive game plan involves being able to set up shots on the perimeter, favorably the 3 point to get their offense going so it’ll open the inside game. This also means the team isn’t as aggressive when it comes to taking the ball inside for points.
But how about that defense?
“We are competing every game, and we defend at a high level,” said Parker Bunn, who joined the coaching staff this season as one of the assistant coaches behind Darren Hertz. “We take pride in our defense and our guys have really bought in to that mindset.” Taking this into perspective, the Tigers are allowing an average of 66.7 points per game against opponents, along with a season average of 31.4 rebounds per game, making it –0.2 rebounds behind las seasons average.
Regarding those stats, Bunn said, “We can improve on just being a little more consistent” and with the recent stretch of games and the results, I can agree.
Opponents being able to capitalize off made turnovers, second chance points and out rebounding these Tigers has become a serious problem for Wittenberg, and unfortunately a bigger pill they expected to swallow down this final stretch. Players Cameron Harrison and Eddie Brown have been producing well for this squad, with Harrison averaging 12.4 points per game on a season 42.3 percent field goal, and Eddie Brown averaging 13.2 PPG with a field goal percentage of 55 percent.
Even with a new addition to the team and defensive guard Isaiah Chitapa being able to produce for the team, they have come up short more times than expected unfortunately. “Everyone has the ability to make plays when it counts, but there could be issues in who we trust more to make the play during these games this season,” Chitapa said. Given his role on the team as a freshman, he says he “needs to learn how to adjust to the game plan for us to succeed” and game plan adjustments could be the answer, in addition to creating more team chemistry with a season average of 10.5 per game.
With this final stretch of games coming around for this year's Tigers, and head coach Darren Hertz coming back to lead this group after being ejected when competing against Wabash University, can this team end the season on a better note? Or will they continue their unfortunate struggles to close out the season?
Time will tell when it’s captured through the lens.
