By Nick Pantages
@nick_pantages22
Coming off a win to start conference play against MIT three days ago, the Pride kept the ball rolling defeating Emmanuel 87-67 at Blake Arena to improve to 3-4.
Led by another balanced scoring effort, the story for Springfield was reserve first-year center Hunter Matteson. With Josh Hartley limited to just six minutes today, and normal starter Curtiss Blische still recovering from an ankle injury, Matteson stepped up, delivering 12 points and eight rebounds off the bench, achieving career-highs in both statistics.
“He’s playing behind two bigs, but Curt goes down, Josh goes down, now Hunter has to step up,” said head coach Michael McClendon. “And he did that. He loves these moments. He’s the all-time leading scorer at his high-school, he’s played in some big games in the playoffs. He doesn’t play like a freshman, and we love that about him.”
Matteson has felt that trust, not only from his coach, but his teammates as well.
“Josh [Hartley] has taught me a lot, and I believe coach has full trust in me,” Matteson said. “When he calls my name I’m always ready to go.”
Emmanuel started the game off hot, as the Saints held a four-point lead eight minutes into the game. But then Matteson and sixth-man Josiah Evely entered the game for Springfield, giving them some much needed life.
The Pride proceeded to go on an 18-5 run, leading 32-23. Evely scored 12 points of his own just in that stretch, including a pair of 3-pointers.
Another key factor during the run was some timely offensive rebounding from Matteson, who had four in the first half alone. Rebounding is one of the strengths in his game, and his intensity down low makes him tough to stop.
“I love rebounding,” Matteson said. “I take a lot of pride in it. Especially in high school my coaches always stressed rebounding.”
While also having a great offensive performance, Springfield’s defense was key in this stretch as well. Traditionally, the Pride play mostly man-to-man defense, but today they switched up their looks, mixing in a 2-3 zone along with some full-court pressure as well.
“We want to be more versatile so it’s harder for teams to prepare for us,” McClendon said. “If we just stick to our man-to-man principles, sometimes we can’t throw teams off.”
Springfield held a 40-33 lead going into halftime, and coming out of the break Matteson got them going.
He scored twice inside the paint, before stepping out and connecting on a mid-range jumpshot, giving Springfield its first six points of the second-half.
“Hunter has been putting in work since September 17th, since we first got here,” McClendon said.
That stretch jump started another Springfield run, this time a 15-5 spurt to increase their lead to 17. Xoren Livingston, who had a game-high 17 points today, also hit a couple big shots to help the Pride race out to their big lead.
Emmanuel got the lead back down to 10 nearly halfway through the second half, but Springfield went on one final push to secure the win.
It was a very balanced effort for the Pride, with 11 players getting their name on the scoresheet, including all four first-years. All their contributions were something McClendon knows they are capable of.
“I told them ‘You guys are going to have an opportunity on Saturday,’” McClendon said. “And they all stepped up. They have already had some moments they can get better at, but the fact of the matter is we are going to need them. Whether it’s hopefully in the playoffs this year, or definitely in the next couple of years. We’re going to need them, and the best way for them to get experience is to play.”
The Pride are off until after the holidays, where they will take on Regis on Jan. 1, and Maine-Farmington the next day as part of the Naismith Classic.
Photo courtesy of Blake Arena.