· , --~ As in many of the other sports areas, the Bison basketball team can be summed up in two words, young and inexperi enced. For the fi rst time in four years , Coach Jess Bucy was without the serv ices of Butch Gardner, a threetime NAIA All -Amer ican who rewrote the Bison record books in scor ing and rebounding. Only two starters returned, senior David Baker at the post position and junior Stan Eckwood at guard. "We' re awfu lly young everywhere," Coach Bucy said . "With only two starters coming back, it's obvious that we will have to look for the new men to help us earl ier than usual." Though the talent was there, the team never seemed to jell together, resu lting in a losing season. The Bisons d id start off right with a 75-58 victory at College of the Ozarks. Stan Eckwood's 28 points paced the victory. Travelling on to Sp ringfield , Missouri, for game number two, the Bisons lost to a tough Evangel team 9774. The roundballers then went on a short-lived winning streak and fans became optimistic as they won their next five outings, including the Evangel Class ic over Thanksgiving vacat ion. The tournament championship had' to be cons idered the season highlight as it involved avenging an ear lier loss to the Evangel Crusaders . In their first conference game, the Bisons could not seem to r;' from the field and fell to the OUac,(?u, Baptist Tigers . In their next game, the Bisons played the College of the Ozarks a good first half, but could not overcome a cold spell in the second half and fell to the Mountaineers. The roundballers played another good first half against the Hendrix College Warriors, but again had second half problems and lost 81-65 despite David Baker's 21 points. This loss lowered the Bison's overall record to 6-9 and 0-5 in the A le. The roundba llers lost a heartbreaker 80-78, to the Henderson State Reddies despite Stan Eckwood's career high of 38 points . In their next game, the Bisons, lerl by freshman Tim Flatt, broke into the AIC win column with a victory over the Arkansas Tech Wonderboys. The win broke a month-long victory drought for the Bisons. (continued on page 203) Basketball • 2Ql
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