Pioneers Challenged by Loss to Chattanooga

By: Nick Kieser

CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE — Game one of two on the road in Chattanooga is a loss for the Vol State Pioneers (3-8).  With the loss to the Chattanooga State Tigers (6-3), the Pioneers fall to 1-3 in conference play this season. 

Starting the game off it was Devlin Chapman and George Roberson who was making the biggest plays happen on defense.  Taking up rebounds and swatting the ball away lasted just an extended amount of time.  The Tigers read on the plays and hit their shots from deep to go ahead 29-41 at halftime.

"As a team, we need to make choices we know that are better for us.  The [Tigers] were shooting lights out while we were playing zone on them.  We should have played man defense on them," said Chapman.

As for a conference loss, there is a lighter side as to what happened last night.  George Stanberry hit the one thousand point mark at six minutes left in the contest.  He finished the game with 31 points on his milestone night.

Stanberry hit the milestone on game 36 of his junior college career.  Piling on to his resume of college basketball Stanberry won All-Conference and All-Region 7 last season after dropping 726 points in 25 games played.

"We need to come out and put more pressure on the ball.  Teams get comfortable when something like that doesn't happen," said Stanberry about the team's defensive play.

The frustration level was high on the bench after the Tigers were hitting all the shots they possibly could from the three-point range.  Not much was able to combat a team like the Tigers who were just simply better that game at hitting their shots.

"After this loss tonight we plan on getting after it tomorrow.  A win tomorrow is good for the momentum we need to have to go into other conference games," said Chapman.

Heading to the Cleveland State gym, the Pioneers look for a bounce-back win after the last loss. For updates and analysis follow @VSCCPioneersMBB on Twitter.