PHOTO BY GEORGIA STATE SPORTS
RJ Hunter had a quiet debut for the College Park Skyhawks Saturday night. In a 119-115 win over the Lakeland Magic, the former Georgia State standout scored 11 points while adding five rebounds.
He spoke on his shooting following a poor 3-11 performance from the field.
“Timing more than anything. It was just a second off on a lot of things today,” Hunter said on his shooting. “I like what I saw though. My condition is better than I thought it would be, taking a couple [of] weeks off. I got good looks. I’ll just watch films and adjust.”
Hours before tipoff, Hunter was officially a Skyhawk. Hunter told the media pregame, he was happy to be back in the G League. In the first possession of the game, Cat Barber made a beautiful back door cut and made a two off of Hunter’s assist.
But it was not a debut full of highlights. Hunter did not watch any film headed into his first game. A lack of time to prepare and scout could be the reason he fouled out in 32 minutes.
“With only one practice under [Hunter’s] belt, we wanted to make sure he got as much playing time,” Head Coach Noel Gillespie said. “We want to get more time with him and get more acclimated to his teammates and the system… We had to throw him in there today.”
“Just practice and trust my instincts,” Hunter said. “It is the nature of the business. I have been in a crazier situation than this. I kind of like it because I have to focus more.”
The Skyhawks struggled for the rest of the night, offensively and defensively. Delaware Blue Coats were unstoppable in the paint finishing the with 40 points in the paint. There was a difference in how both teams played defense.
Blue Coat played an aggressive man to man defense, while the Skyhawks needed to shape up. The real killer was bench points: the Blue Coats had 59 of them.
“A lot of it was sluggish. It seemed like we were running in mud,” Gillespie said. To start the game, we did not have the same [ effort ] like we had in Wisconsin … [Jared Brownridge] leads the bench … He’s one of the best sixth men in the league.”
The Skyhawks are looking to make a push for the playoffs and there is a lot the team needs to work on. The Skyhawks had a terrible passing game tonight. As a result, the Blue Coats were able to get a hand on the ball countless times.
The Skyhawks did have a few shining stars. Cat Barber, Jordan Sibert and Tahj McCall finished with a combined 70 points. The Skyhawks clicked a switch late in the fourth coming as close as nine points with 49.3 seconds left to play.
There was not enough time for the team to claim the win. The team will have to regroup and get ready to travel to Lakeland, Florida to play the Magic.
“We hold our destiny in our own hands,” Coach Gillespie said. “We play Lakeland head to head and it will be a big game. We lost tonight, but they lost tonight as well. One game at a time, [after the Lakeland game] we play Wisconsin, who leads the Eastern Conference … If we win our home games and division games, we have a good chance like anybody to make a playoff push.”
