Men’s basketball hosts Central Saturday

Junior guard from Tulsa, Okla., TJ Williams, dribbles down the floor in a Nov. 20 game in which the Lions hosted College of the Ozarks.

Willie Brown / The Chart

Junior guard from Tulsa, Okla., TJ Williams, dribbles down the floor in a Nov. 20 game in which the Lions hosted College of the Ozarks.

Robert Corn’s team made it through it’s non-conference schedule undeafeated.

Saturday, men’s basketball will host the University of Central Missouri Mules, the defending MIAA Champions. Central won 27 games last year, going 18-2 in conference play.

Having gone 4-0 to open the season, Corn does say he sees a couple of areas for his team to improve on.

“Well I think we’re heading in the right direction,” he said. “Obviously there’s still some things we need to do better, we gotta shoot free-throws better because right now we’re shooting under 60 percent as a team and if we don’t correct that then it’s going to hurt us in a close ballgame.”

Corn also says unforced errors and taking care of the ball are things his team needs to work on as they head into their MIAA slate. He says the Lions are averaging around 16 turnovers per game against defenses that aren’t as pressure-oriented as conference play will bring.

Wednesday, the Lions opened their MIAA schedule at Truman State where Bowlin’s 34 points led southern to an easy 91-74 win.

Previously this season, the Lions opened 2010 with a 75-53 win over Northeastern State, 79-51 over Central Bible College, 76-62 over College of the Ozarks, and 75-70 over Arkansas-Fort Smith.

“Well I think the only way you develop confidence is winning and we’ve got some good wins,” Corn said. “We’ve beaten two region teams, Division-II opponents, our other two games against Central Bible and College of the Ozarks, I felt like those games were really good for us because both teams were really well-coached and they executed their offense and made us get out and guard for 20 to 25 seconds.”

As his team begins conference play, Corn is confident the non-conference portion of the schedule prepared it well for MIAA action.