 Hello and welcome to the Gary Stewart show presented by Buffalo Wildlings. I'm Greg Royce joined by Stevenson men's basketball coach Gary Stewart and coach we haven't talked for a couple weeks but you've been pretty busy but pretty successful 4-0 over the last few weeks kind of around the break. So can I talk just in general how things have gone for you guys over the last couple weeks? Well we played some good basketball. We went on the road and played at Mount Aloysius and and I thought for 15 minutes we were as good as we've been all year and then came back and played played goucher prior to Christmas and and and they're a team that's been tough for us to handle the last couple years and we were fortunate to to get off to a good start there and and and beat them and then out of the the Christmas break we had our first ever Buffalo Wildlings classic tournament and good competition different styles of play which was good for us we had to execute both man-to-man and in zone offense and and and they presented different challenges one really good off the dribble and then another opponent that was tough to handle from the perimeter. So all in all it's been a good couple weeks. Yeah kind of going through the Buffalo Wildlings classic this past week and you beat Merchant Marine the championship game kind of weird game you were up 13 a halftime or up 15 a second half and they were able to came to come back and actually take the lead and then he traded back and forth you were able to stand that and and eventually pick up the victory there. It was encouraging to see that obviously you want to come back on you but same time to show the resiliency to bounce back and to hold them off. Yeah yeah that was important for us and another way to win a game and and you spoke to it obviously you want to sustain that lead and grow it and hopefully get it to a workable number where you can go into your bench. We weren't able to do that they caught fire from the perimeter and knocked down some shots that they weren't getting in the first half and to our guys credit we were able to get some stops we got out in transition we got some offensive rebounds we put the ball in the interior and we got contributions from a lot of different people. Yeah a couple people in particular obviously you know Denzel and Jalen they've kind of done their thing what is Marcus Dentley named the all tournament team had a pair of double doubles speak to his effort during the tournament. Well Denzel is the tournament most viable player has the 27 point outing against Merchant Marine and so that'll give you an indicator as to how well he played and yet I thought Marcus Dentley was the best player we had throughout the weekend he has double doubles in both games he's shooting a high percentage from the field he's defending really well and and I love his energy and he's a guy that we we expected great things from and he seems to be getting better and better with each outing and that that bodes well for us moving forward. Yeah another guy we've kind of seen flashes from starting on Saturday was Mark Terrell off the bench have 11 points grab some rebounds at key spots. Yeah he did and Mark is a guy that gives us another dimension he is tough to handle down there one-on-one on the block he can step out and make a shot in the perimeter he's a very good passer so he gives us another person in another area that we can be really good in. Yeah all right shifting gears a little bit you're done with the non-conference now you move back to the conference play this week tomorrow night Wednesday you're home against Messiah always a tough battle and then Saturday you go to like homing who's you know the top 10 nationally and you know played pretty well so obviously key week getting back to conference play you kind of want to keep that momentum going. Most certainly do and Messiah is a difficult opponent extremely well coached they got some really good players and really good young players and they can do a lot of different things they they put the ball on the floor and can cross havoc on your defense if you don't keep them out of the interior they have some people that spot up that are excellent excellent shooters and that comes from a multitude of different positions they can get those opportunities from guards but they can also get those from the front court and then I think they have one of the better freshmen I've seen since I've taken this job so they're gonna be handful. And talk a little bit about like homing on Saturday going up and making that trip obviously a long trip and then you know play a game after making that trip. Yeah long trips are only difficult when opponents really really challenging and obviously in like homing it's top of the food chain they've had an excellent season to date and one of the top teams in the country when the new pole comes out I think and one of the few teams that's undefeated so you know that match up there warned special attention and and they've got a great outfit they are they relentless in what they do and and again presents a lot of challenges for you on both ends of the floor so we're gonna certainly have our hands full but obviously our full concentration right now is on the side. Absolutely all right coach well thanks for your time I wish you the best of luck this week for Gary Stewart I'm Greg Royce this has been the Gary Stewart show.