Welcome back for week three of the Coach's Corner. The advent season is well underway, and I hope that your Christmas preparations are going well. This can be a very stressful time of year, so I hope all of you can reflect, and remember to keep Christ in Christmas. Although it's nice to receive and give gifts, we cannot forget the reason for the season. 
 
Speaking of the season, we had two very important conference games last week. On Wednesday, we traveled to Biddeford, Maine, to take on the University of New England. UNE had a pretty tough season last year, but they have their five starters back, and they are playing much better. Unfortunately, we got a very good glimpse of that in our game on Wednesday. In the first half we did a great job of controlling the pace of the game, and we held a 32–25 advantage with just over two minutes remaining until halftime. They closed out the first half with a 9-0 run, capped off by a three-pointer at the buzzer. That really took the wind out of our sails, and we never seemed to get back into a good flow, losing the game 87–67. I'm not going to lie, that loss really hurt. I knew it would be a very difficult game, but I thought with most of our team recovered from injury, I really liked our chances. Ryan Brooks had a very good game, leading the team with 19 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, and three blocked shots. We shot only 3–14 from three, and 8–17 from the free-throw line. Although our defense has been very good this year, in this game, we didn't get the stops when we needed them.
 
After the loss to UNE, I wasn't sure how we would respond taking one of our longest road trips of the season to the University of Hartford. In their only league game of the season earlier that week, Hartford beat reigning champion Western New England University, 76-74. In preparation, we took a slightly different approach to the practices preceding the game. On Thursday we did an hour of skill development, and a 45-minute weight workout. On Friday we did primarily Hartford scouting items, and didn't do as much running as normal. We needed our guys as fresh as possible after a two-hour bus ride to Hartford. I don't know if any of this made a difference, but I do know that we played very well, and beat then 6–1 Hartford, 91–76. It may have been the most well-balanced offensive attack that we have had in my 17 years here at Gordon. Sean Quanico and Isaac Jarvis led us in scoring with 16 points each. Brandon Swann and Willem Le Plastrier came off the bench to score 13 and 12 points, respectively. Drew Brander and Ryan Brooks both played solid all-around games. Drew had 12 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists, and Ryan finished with 11 points, six rebounds, and five assists. It was a great bounce-back win after a tough loss earlier in the week. 
 
This week we have a brutal non-conference schedule competing in our second three-game week in the early season. Tuesday, we open with a road game at Worcester State. Although their record is 1-6, they are one of the best 1-6 teams I've seen. Their preseason schedule has been brutal with three games against top-25 teams, but they have been very competitive in all of their games. They have a dynamic pair of players, Joe Okla and Ayme Daguilh, who are very talented all-around players. We need to slow them down tomorrow night.
 
On Thursday we return home to face off against former league member, Colby-Sawyer College. Colby-Sawyer has really struggled this season, but they still have dangerous players. Two years ago, we opened our season against them and we took them lightly and lost 79-68. They have five guys scoring eight points per game or more, so they definitely have the weapons to beat us if we don't give a great effort and play together. 
 
We finish the week with a road game at Lasell on Saturday. Lasell has had our number the last couple of years (I'm not sure why I keep playing them), and they are still a very strong team. They are led by brothers, Andy and Esmer Medesko. They are both very intelligent all-around players. Andy is a forward who averages 10.6 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 5.3 assists. Esmer is their point guard, and he's averaging 19.3 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 5.6 assists. They also have former Bishop Fenwick guard Che Hanks who averages 11.4 points per game. It will be a very difficult road game. 
 
We had a good win in our last game, and we are hoping to not only keep the momentum, but hopefully build on it over these next three games. Even if you can't make it to a game this week, we always appreciate the prayers of our loyal supporters. Thank you for your time. 
 
God Bless,
     Coach Murphy
 

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." - Colossians 3:17