By Edgar Rivas, Jr.—
The defending NJAC champions picked up where they left off from last season: winning. With an impressive 11-2 and an undefeated home record of 6-0, head coach Marc Brown’s group is showing the NJAC world why they are the defending champions.
“[It’s because of] the chemistry of the team. So far the chemistry has been great,” said coach Brown.
Kaihrique Irick, 21, Criminal Justice, from Teaneck, NJ has been lighting up the scoreboard. Averaging 17.1 Pts/G, he scored a career-high 27 points in their 83-71 win over John Jay College.
Keith Williams, 21, Business Administration, from Jersey City, NJ was named Athlete of the Week for the 2nd time this season, the 5th time of his career. He’s averaging 11.5 Pts/G with 4.2 Ast/G and 2.7 Stl/G.
The 6-0 record at home shows the importance of “protecting our house”.
“[It’s] pretty important, especially when you come into conference play. One of our goals as a team is to go undefeated at home,” said coach Brown.
They are 1-0 at the JMAC in conference home games.
Being the defending NJAC champions means the target is on your back and every other team within that conference wants a piece of you.
“Everyone’s going to give us their best effort. I tell my guys that’s how it goes when you win, people come after you. We have to be prepared for that,” said coach Brown.
Expect this team to still have the same winning attitude from the moment the season began.
“[We want to win] the championship [for the 2nd consecutive season]. [It’s] my expectation every year. We play to win,” said coach Brown. “[But we have to] improve defensively. We’ve taken a step back after the break. That’s what we’re working on practice.”