Skidding Panthers aim to turn things around against Memorial

By Thomas Becker

For the first time this season, the UPEI Men's Basketball Panthers are in an unfamiliar position – looking up at a new first place team.

After spending eight weeks atop the AUS standings, the Panthers (10-6) lost four of their last five games, including two to the cellar-dwelling St. F.X. X-Men, and now sit in second place.

"This is a very competitive league," said head coach Tim Kendrick. "We went in there last weekend and came up short."

Injuries to key players in the rotation played a major factor during their recent skid, but Kendrick isn't using that as an excuse.

"It's been a real tough three weeks for us, but we're trying to get healthy so we can get going again."

The Panthers have little time to reminisce as they prepare for a hungry Memorial team that recently defeated the first-place Dalhousie Tigers.

In the preseason, pundits projected a second place finish for the Sea-Hawks (6-10), but the team's inconsistent play landed them outside a playoff spot.

However, Memorial's frontcourt tandem Vasilije Curcic and Caleb Gould – 2015 AUS All-Stars – present a problem for opposing teams on the inside.

"It's going to be a tough battle for us because they're big and they're tough to handle," said Kendrick.

After playing just eight players last weekend, the Panthers hope to get some bodies back before the weekend contests.

They'll lean heavily on two of the league's leading scorers in Tyler Scott (25.9) and Brad States (19.1) to get them back in the win column.

"We're not far off from the team we were, we just have to get some guys back and play our game."

The two teams battle it out Saturday at 8 p.m. and again Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre.