Despite a 14-point loss to American University on Feb. 3, the Bison men’s basketball team bounced back to a decisive victory against Holy Cross on Feb. 6, largely thanks to the impressive efforts of Nana Foulland ’18. The Reading, Pa. native impressed the visiting crowd with a career-high 22 points in the team’s match-up against the Crusaders, after recording a double-double with 11 points and a career-high 13 rebounds against the Eagles earlier in the week.

The 6’9” center’s performance throughout the week clearly highlights his commitment to remaining positive, enthusiastic, and dedicated in order to overcome obstacles and attain results.

“The Wednesday loss didn’t really affect us. We came into league play knowing that we couldn’t get too high after wins and too low after losses. We kept a clear head after the loss and got focused on Saturday’s match up,” Foulland said.

This optimistic mindset enabled Foulland to produce his best play against Holy Cross, as he not only showed on the scoreboard, but also drew a handful of fouls to propel the Bison towards victory.

“We stuck to our identity, especially on defense, and that is what made the difference,” Foulland said.

That different performance has now solidified the Bison’s stronghold of first place in the Patriot League. Although Foulland has shown quite an impressive performance in his sophomore campaign so far, he is exemplifying mere development at the end of an extremely successful rookie season. Foulland was a member of the Patriot League All-Rookie Team for the 2014-2015 season after finishing as the Orange and Blue’s No. 2 scorer and the top rebounder and shot-blocker. He also led the team in field goal percentage and scored in double figures 20 times, which helped him gain a dangerous reputation among Patriot League foes.

Since his first year on the court, Foulland said that his game has altered in terms of his comfort with the pace of the game, as well as his increasing strength and improving skill sets. The biggest changes, however, have come in his mindset, thanks largely to the leadership and guidance of teammate Ryan Frazier ’16.

“He always gives a 110% every time he steps on the court, which motivates not only me, but other teammates as well. I try to take his mentality and energy and try to make it my own so that in the future, teammates can look at me and have the same thoughts or feelings about me,” Foulland said.

With a strong senior class, Foulland has a multitude of leaders to look up to, and he hopes that his voice will also impact his teammates. By working hard and having a large vocal presence on and off the court, Foulland hopes that the team will bring home both the Patriot League regular season champion title as well as the tournament championship.

Foulland will have another chance to make strides towards these goals at the away game on Feb. 13 against Colgate.