Men’s basketball played American University this past weekend on Feb. 27 and 28 to finish out their regular season after a four week hiatus due to COVID-19. The virus struck the team just before the end of the season. Even though COVID took a turn on their season, men’s basketball came back and fought hard in their last two regular season games. The Bison closed out their regular season with a 4-6 record.

The Bison first took on AU at home, in Sojka Pavilion, on Saturday Feb. 27. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 on campus, the team only started to practice two days prior to their game. Despite this, the team started strong, showed confidence, and played well. Freshman phenom Deuce Turner ’24 had 21 points against American, setting a new career high. Even though the Bison put forth a strong effort, they lost with a final score of 78-71.

“This past weekend was interesting because we were missing big pieces for our team and we all were shaky given that we hadn’t played in a month and just gotten out of quarantine a week prior,” Turner said. “We didn’t play as well as we hoped, but that’s expected given the circumstances. The playoffs should be a different story because we will have all of our guys back. We play Lafayette which beat us twice so hopefully Coach Davis and the coaching staff see the adjustments we need to make and we will work on those this coming week.”

The Bison quickly rested and played American again on Sunday, Feb. 28 in Washington, D.C. Heading into their final game of the regular season. The Bison were excited, strong, and confident. Xander Rice ’23 led the team this Sunday with 16 points. Andrew Funk ’22 earned the second highest points against American, adding 13 points to the scoreboard. The Bison played well, however ended up losing to American 81-68.

Funk remarked, “Even though we lost two games this weekend it was great to be back out there after almost a month without playing. We could have done a lot of things better, but there were a lot of positives to be taken away. As far as the tournament this weekend, it’ll be really nice to be able to get a full week of practice under our belts before playing Saturday. We know we just need to take it one game at a time, and this season especially, anyone can win on any given night.”

The Blue and Orange are ranked No. 6 entering the Patriot League Tournament. The Bison will take on Lafayette College in the Patriot league Quarter Finals. The game will be hosted at Lafayette on March 6, starting at 2 p.m.