It was obvious that AU men's basketball coach Jeff Jones was frustrated after a 71-59 home loss to Yale on Jan. 9.
"I don't think our kids can play any harder," he said after emerging from the locker room nearly half an hour following the defeat
It was the low point of the Eagles' winter break play in which they went 2-5, only picking up wins at St. Francis (Pa.) and Colgate. They also lost three at Bender Arena, where they were once undefeated.
Every night something different went wrong for AU. Against Yale it was a second-half collapse as the Bulldogs rattled off a 15-2 run after the break. A forgettable first half dampered the Eagles' comeback in a 72-62 loss at Vermont Dec. 29, while a 36 percent shooting effort doomed them against Lehigh, 70-59, on Jan. 7.
The Eagles also struggled to find a consistent go-to player in the midseason slump. Jones used four different starting lineups, and four different players led them in scoring during the stretch.
The closest thing to a reliable scorer was junior guard Arvydas Eitutavicius, who strung together three 20-point games. But Jones said all the holes needed to be plugged.
"We're like the guy in front of the dike," Jones said. "It's not always the same spot. It's not always the same person."
(Almost) herding the Bison
If there was such a thing as a good loss in the Eagles' last four weeks, their 58-50 loss to Bucknell at Bender on Jan. 14 might have been it.
The Eagles began the game on a 10-2 run over the Bison, who have garnered votes every week in both Top 25 polls since the season began, and led 30-26 at halftime. But Bucknell went ahead late while AU shot 24 percent in the second half to seal the outcome.
"You don't like losing, but this is a different type of loss," junior guard Andre Ingram said. "Some losses you can learn a lot from and take a lot from. ... If we play like this, we should be in the thick of things when the Patriot League tournament comes."
Ingram simply struggling
Ingram, AU's top offensive weapon the last two years, didn't have a complicated explanation for scoring slump the first half of the season.
"It's not like I'm having personal problems. No injuries or anything like that," he said after his eight-point, 2-of-10 performance against Bucknell. "Sometimes it's just as simple as the ball doesn't go in the basket. It's really been that simple."
Ingram is averaging 11.9 points, the lowest of his AU career, and is shooting .306, third worst on the team behind reserves Brian Gilmore and Craig Weinstein, but he said he'd move past it.
"That can't last," Ingram said. "I know it won't last. Tough times don't last with tough people."
Raise the roof
The Eagles reached full height when junior South Carolina transfer Paulius Joneliunas became eligible Dec. 23 at Maryland. The 6-foot-11 center has started in seven of eight games, averaging 3.6 points and 3.1 rebounds.
