By: Mason Green ’22, La Vie staff writer

The men’s basketball team is coming off winning the MAC Championship being heavily led by a group of seven seniors. As the new season begins, the team is set with a revamped group of eight freshmen and only one senior.

Despite being pushed aside with such a young team and being pre-ranked eighth out of nine conference teams, LVC’s team is determined to prove people wrong. There are six returning players from last year’s team, five of them being sophomores and one of them being the senior, Chris Anderson, who is taking on this year’s leadership role. In contrast with the many new faces, coach Brad McAlester is entering his 25th season as the all-time winningest head coach in program history. Although there is still a lot to learn for the team as it is early in the season, they have shown what they are capable of with their first two games.

Through their first two games of the season at the Penn St. Harrisburg Tip-Off Tournament, the team turned heads with their performances against Neumann University and Gettysburg College. Against Neumann University the team was up against a tall task in their first game together but held their own in a close 87-80 overtime loss. In his collegiate debut, freshman Trevor Covey finished with a game-high 22 points while sophomore Zach Tucker added 17 points and 10 assists for his double-double. The next day, the team regrouped and won a hard-fought battle against Gettysburg to get their first win of the season. The team shot a notable 52.4 percent from the field with Zach Tucker’s 17 points and a game-high 19 points from sophomore Jordan Abdo.

The Dutchmen are set for their annual Rinso Marquette Tournament inside Sorrentino Gymnasium with their first game vs. Bryn Athyn College at 8 p.m. on November 16.