By Maizy Swift & Barbara Vasquez, Asst. Production Editor & Staff Writer
Jasper basketball is officially back for the 2023-24 season. The women’s basketball team opened their season with a match against Central Connecticut State University on Nov. 6, resulting in a win for the Lady Jaspers.
The opposition held the lead for the first half of the game, until the second quarter when the Jaspers finally got a few points ahead. The Jaspers maintained this lead until the end of the game, resulting in a victory in their season opener. Leyla Ozturk, a forward on the team, described the women’s opening week and the first following games of the season.
“Grit, together, and excitement … we’ve all been working towards that moment where we can play and I think it was just really exciting to finally get that opportunity,” Ozturk said. “I say ‘together’ because we’re always sharing the ball and having good energy and everyone is just really involved and grit because we had a tough loss against GW [George Washington University] but we just worked through it and we bounced back very hard against Fordham and had a great win.”
Forward Narquisia Dodson talked about how the team is setting itself up for the future season.
“I will say the definition of this year’s team, we’re really all about our grit,” Dodson said. “Even in our loss. [In] the first three games for this season, you can see that it could literally be anyone’s night. We don’t have a problem sharing the ball, we love playing with each other, and that chemistry going on later in the year, that’s going to help our team go further throughout the season.”
Forward, Jade Blagrove tells what the team’s opening weekend meant for them.
“I think opening weekend, and especially after last night’s game, [against Fordham] we kind of set the tone for who we want to be for the season … we have a big game coming up at St. Johns and our coach said it’s a game where we can put ourselves on the map and show people that they shouldn’t underestimate us, that’s been our goal since opening week,” Blagrove said.
The win against Fordham this past week was a monumental victory for the Lady Jaspers, with this being the first win against the school since their last triumph in 2011. The longstanding rivalry between Fordham and MC has been happening since 1981 for the women’s team, known as “The Battle of the Bronx,” so this feat is one to remember.
For Blagrove, walking into such an important game meant a lot of pressure.
“It comes with some extra pressure,” Blagrove said. “It’s just always a very big game and we know that, but we delivered, so we’re happy.”
The women’s season is off to a decent start, considering their 2-1 record. Guard Jayla James reiterated the importance of the need to get better every single day to maintain a positive record as they inch closer to conference play.
“We’ve been taking it day by day, just getting like 10% better every day will help us in the long run, because the ultimate goal of course is to win the championship and everything,” James said. “But we just want to focus on those things we can improve on and that we can control. Right now, that’s just coming into practice every day ready to go and ready to compete.”
This year’s basketball season also has high hopes for the men’s basketball team. On Nov. 10, the Jaspers fell to the number one team in the country, University of Kansas 99-61. However, on Nov. 16, the men’s team won 79-67 against Felician University. The Jaspers were down in the first half but outscored Felician 44-28 in the second half of the game.
Daniel Rouzan, a forward on the men’s team, explained what he’s worked on since the Kansas game.
“ I feel like I improved, [in terms of] being more aggressive,” Rouzan said. “I’m feeling the game a little more try a little harder, like the bright lights of Kansas were intimidating at first but being at home felt good and I felt comfortable out there.”
Rouzan also gave some insight as to how he plans to improve for future games.
“I’m slowing down, just thinking of a game plan playing one more field instead of overthinking everything being low and in the stance. Just being ready at all times with the ball.”
Logan Padgett, a guard and forward on the team, shared how the team’s chemistry is part of what is pushing the team forward this season.
“I think that right now our strength is just chemistry like I think right now we have a lot of guys that actually get along very well, and I think that’s been rare in my time in college basketball,” Padgett said. “We actually do get along well so I think that putting that with the basketball side, we should be able to know where people are on the offensive end of the floor and be able to find people because we can gel together easily.”
With the upcoming game next Friday against the University of Connecticut, Padgett shared how he can try to prepare and learn each team’s strengths and weaknesses.
“I plan to just go in every game, take each game individually, each game is different,” Padgett said. “Each game requires something different. UConn, particularly, those guys are obviously big, fast, and all that stuff, so just trying to slow the game down for them, they want to get up and down, we’re gonna have to slow the game down at our pace. So just taking each game individually and playing into what we’re finding the strengths that we need to beat that individual team.”
Guard and forward Seydou Traore is currently leading the Jaspers in scoring. Traore said that coach Gallagher has helped his success this season.
“Coach has been great so far, he tries to give anybody a lot of confidence and treat it more than just basketball like outside the court, like my family,” Traore said.
Something that helped the team win against Felician was keeping up their mindset.
“We’re just more just making sure our mentality is right,” Traore said. “Because we were playing the lower division team was making sure that we had the right mentality going into the game.”
Overall, the future for the men’s and women’s basketball teams this season is hopeful. The next game for the men’s is against the University of Connecticut and the women’s next game is against St. John’s University.