New York, NY—The Howard men's basketball team will be tested again when it takes on the Lions of Columbia University Monday night at 7 pm in the Levien Center. The game will be streamed live on the Ivy League Digital Network http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/columbia/game/mbb-howard-at-columbia-on-12282015. There is a fee of $9.95. Jerry Recco and James Buford will call the exciting action.
The Bison (7-6) have lost three of their last four, mostly due to injuries. Two of their starters and a key veteran reserve, will again not be available for this game. Junior guard James "JT" Miller (fractured finger), junior center
Marcel Boyd (fractured finger) and red-shirt senior center
Oliver Ellison (injured knee) are all out. Miller and Boyd could be back as early as the Cornell game at home on January 6 but Ellison's future return has not yet been determined.
Despite the loss of the valuable trio, Howard has been able to ride the scoring ability of junior guard James "J-Byrd" Daniel, III, who leads the nation in scoring at 28.4 points per game and junior guard
Damon Collins, who has stepped up to average almost 14, nearly triple his output from a season ago.
Although reserves
Dalique Mingo, Solomon "Solo" Mangham,
Kofi Andoh and Tyler Stome have been able to fill in adequately, it does not make up for the 27 points and 17 rebounds that the trio of Miller, Boyd and Ellison provide.
"There are a couple of problems with that," noted Howard head coach
Kevin Nickelberry. "One is that the players like J Byrd and Damon now have to do more because of the absence of those players. That causes fatigue and when there is fatigue, you tend not to be as productive for 40 minutes. That is what you have seen of late."
He continued. "The other thing is that the players who we are now forced to play are in unfamiliar territory. You are asking them to do things that they are not accustomed to at this level. You can simplify things as much as possible to accommodate them, but they are still going to make mistakes. And at this point, there is very little margin of error."
Case in point: In the recent loss at Central Michigan, the Bison played the veteran Chippewas tough through the first 20 minutes, even holding onto a three-point lead just before half. Then Nickelberry subbed for a visibly fatigued Daniel and Collins, and in less than two minutes, Central Michigan went on a run and took a six-point lead and momentum to the locker room.
In the second half, the Chippewas doubled and triple teamed Daniel and paid attention to Collins. It resulted in Daniel scoring a season 19 points while Collins contributed 14 on 5 of 14 shooting. The rest of the team missed 20 of 27 shots.
"Teams have begun to scout us as they do in this business," said Nickelberry, in his sixth year at the helm. "Central Michigan did a good job of taking "J Byrd" away and saying 'we are going to let the rest of the guys beat us.' We have to find a way to combat that and play strong for 40 minutes."
In the Lions (8-5), Howard faces a team that starts three seniors. They are well rested after a 14-day break for finals, very balanced and they come in with a four-game win streak. Four starters average double figures and they have in senior guard Maodo Lo, one of the top players in the Ivy League.
"Columbia is a very good basketball team," said Nickelberry. "They have senior starters, they are a good three-point shooting team and they have some quality wins under their belt. It is going to be a tough challenge for us."
NEXT UP: The Bison continue their road swing when they travel to Hawaii to take on the Rainbows of Hawaii, January 2 at 11:30 pm Eastern time.
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