While the rest of the student body has been settling into the new semester, the men’s basketball team has been busy.

At 6-15, the Leopards find themselves in the heart of their season against Patriot League competition. This past week, the team played two games against Bucknell and Loyola. Both resulted in losses, but the outlook isn’t all bad as the Leopards will need to make strides to close out the season on a strong note.

Against Bucknell, the Leopards found themselves simply outmatched in all facets of the game leading to a 28-point blowout. The Bison were able to get the foul line 31 times leading to double digit scoring from four different players. They also out-rebounded the Leopards by a margin of 12. Not a recipe for success, overall.

Freshmen Kyle Stout and Lukas Jarrett both finished a point shy of notching a double-double in the game, and fellow freshman Hunter Janacek led the team in scoring with 11 points. Strong play from the freshmen has marked a bright spot for the Leopards this year.

Coming off their tough loss, the Leopards put together one of their most resilient efforts of the year in their 70-62 loss to Loyola. Early in the first half, the Leopards found themselves down almost 30 points. Sloppy play on both ends of the floor let the Greyhounds jump out to an enormous lead. But, in what seems to be the theme of the year, the Leopards never gave up. The team fought back hard to get the deficit down to only one point with 10 minutes to go in the second half. Senior captain Nick Linder led the comeback, scoring 13 of his 21 points in the second half.

The early deficit proved to be too much as Loyola was able to hold on at the end to win by eight. Once again, free throws proved to be crucial in the game. Loyola was able to get the line 10 times more than the Leopards and shot an impressive 75 percent from the charity strip. In addition, the Leopards 12 turnovers, half of which came off of steals, led to 22 points off turnovers for the Greyhounds.

Despite this, it was one of the more intense games the team has been in this year and showed how good the Leopards could be when they are clicking on all cylinders.

Currently at 2-9 in the Patriot League, the Leopards sit at the bottom half of the standings. With eight games left before the playoffs, the team will have ample opportunities to show what they are really made of.