Fighting Bees Basketball add fresh faces to old talent

Nov. 18, 2004
By Dan Tomlin
Sports Editor

It’s going to be hard to repeat the accomplishment of last year’s Fighting Bees men’s basketball team. For the first time in school history the men advanced to the Final Four of the NAIA National Tournament.

This year it’s hard to recognize any of the faces on the bench. The only people back from the run to Branson are seniors Nick Ferreria and Ryan Johnson, junior David Burke, and head coach Ray Shovlain. While graduating eight seniors the team also lost the three assistant coaches.

“It’s going to be an exciting year,” Shovlain said. “It’s almost like you’re starting with a clean slate. It’s a fresh start all over from the players to the coaches.”

One of the major differences between this year’s team as opposed to teams in the past is the amount of varsity experience on the bench. Besides Johnson and Ferreria, the starting five have almost zero experience playing at the college varsity level, and off the bench, Burke is the only one who has seen the court.

“I’ve never started a season with this few people having varsity experience,” Shovlain said. “It’s going to be an experiment trying to see how we’re going to do it.”

Unfortunately for the Fighting Bees there’s very limited time for them to experiment with too much as their season schedule is not for the faint of heart. Already this season they have taken on D-I foe Western Illinois as well as NAIA no. 10 Marian and no. 27 Taylor University.

“This is one of the toughest schedules we’ve ever had,” Shovlain said. “We expect to be strong and competitive in conference play.”

The Fighting Bees are ranked fifth in the preseason conference polls, but Johnson isn’t concerned with the ranking.

“I don’t worry about it too much, a couple years ago we were supposed to be second worst and we finished first,” Johnson said. “We’ll be right in the mix, having conference play in the second half definitely benefits us.”

Johnson also believes that having this number of young guns on the team also benefits the Bees.

“Having younger inexperienced youth equates to hunger,” Johnson said of a team that includes three starters seeing their first experience as Fighting Bees. “We expect to be up at or at least near the same level we performed at last year.”

For Johnson and Ferreria, having been influential players on the varsity team since their freshman year the beginning of the end is hard to believe.

“Boy the time has gone really fast,” Ferreria said. “You take the seasons one at a time and then now it’s the last one, but you still have to take it with the same focus."

Joining Johnson and Ferreria on the starting five are Freshman Adam Fahrenkrog as well as sophomore Chris Washington and juco transfer Ante Juric.

Juric, originally from Croatia, transferred from Southeast Community College where he helped lead SCC to back-to-back national championships.

After falling in a landslide to Western Illinois in their season opener the Fighting Bees traveled to Trinity International University and defeated the Trojans, before coming home for the SAU Classic. The Bees struggled and went 0-2 in the two day tournament.

After trailing by 13 at halftime to Marian the Fighting Bees played strong in the second half before falling to the Knights 73-66.

In the loss, Washington showed signs of poise as he led all Fighiting Bees with 17 points, including shooting lights out from behind the three point line.

Johnson and Ferreira combined for 27 points, which Ferreira also pulled down seven rebounds and was a defensive presence every time down the court including three blocked shots.

Fahrenkrog also poured in 13 points while muscling down eight rebounds.
Four of the five starting Bees finished in double digits in scoring which bodes well for the rest of the season.

In the second game of the tournament the Fighting Bees fell to the Taylor University Trojans, 73-53.

The no. 27 ranked Trojans shot 53% from the field in the first half, and 67% from the field in the second half to enlargen a seven point halftime lead.

Johnson led the Bees with 20 points, Washington chipped in nine to go along with four assists.

The loss drops the Fighting Bees to 1-2 in the early season, but has given them hope of things to come down the road.

The Fighting Bees will take on their cross river rivals the Augustana College Vikings on Dec. 1 at Lee Lohman Arena. Last year the Bees knocked off the Vikings in Rock Island.
After that the Fighting Bees will also host the Pepsi Classic on Dec. 3 & 4.

As the Fighting Bees take on their competition this fall they’ll be building for what coaches and players both hope will be another conference championship run.

“We just need to keep improving everyday, that’s the main thing,” Shovlain said. “We are going to be able to compete for conference and a spot at nationals, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

With a rigorous pre-conference schedule the Fighting Bees should be primed to make that run at a return trip to Branson.

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