The Piedmont men’s basketball team is more than ready to start their competitive season after a tough loss to Maryville College in the semifinals of the inaugural Collegiate Conference of the South conference tournament.
In the preseason, the Lions faced the Division 1 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in a back-and-forth battle, with the Lions leading 47-46 at the half. Unfortunately, the Chanticleers took the lead 88-86 with a layup in the final 13 seconds of the game.
“It was a good test for us to get ready for conference play, which is what most of their guys are excited to compete and see if we can validate what we did on Monday,” said head coach Greg Neeley, who enters his 10th season coaching the Lions, four of which have been winning seasons.
Six of the Lions’ 13 wins in the 2022-2023 season came from perseverance late in the game, one of which was the conference quarterfinal against Berea. The Lions went into two overtime periods and came out on top to move onto the semifinals with an 86-80 win. After being just two wins away from reaching a winning season, the Lions are set on finding success in and out of the conference.
“We really pride ourselves on winning in the last four minutes and just executing late in the game. I think for us to accomplish bigger goals, that needs to be a smaller goal,” said Neeley. “We need to earn the right to be in the game the last four minutes, and then go win it at the end.”
This team is unique, as there are four seniors and three graduate students, two of whom transferred into Piedmont this fall. The team also gained two junior transfers from Spartanburg Methodist College, as well as four true freshmen.
“With the depth of our sophomore class, those guys are going to impact us throughout the season,” said Neeley, who, even with so many new faces, expects greatness from the sophomore class. “For example, Fisher Darden, he’s 6-3, longer, athletic and just has a smooth pace to his game.”
Sophomore guard Fisher Darden has played in eleven games for the Lions and was huge in the scrimmage against Coastal Carolina, making both of his 3-point attempts as well as five field goals.
“I’m looking forward to contributing more to the team this year,” said Darden. “Starting off by playing two really solid teams sets us up well for the rest of the season because now we know we can be competitive with anyone on our schedule.”
Darden’s hopes seem to be coming true, as he currently holds the best free-throw percentage on the team (1.000). Continuing his success, in an NCAA record-breaking performance against Warren Wilson, Darden started and scored a career-high 16 points.
The Lions are hungry to compete and win with the goal of coming out victorious in the conference championship on Feb. 24., and coach Neeley has faith in them to get it done.
“You feel it before the game, you either have it, or you don’t, and we had it against Coastal,” said Neeley. “So, we have to try to create that for 25 more nights during the regular season.”
The Lions will play their first away game of the season at Wheaton College in Illinois on Nov. 17 before returning home to face Methodist University on Nov. 25.
