The men’s and women’s basketball teams competed in season openers this past weekend as the beginning of the regular season is underway. The men’s team defeated Davis & Elkins College Saturday with a whopping 82-54 win in the first game of the year.

The Screaming Eagles won its 31^st straight home opener against the Senators and showed signs of positive outcomes for future performances.

Leading the men’s squad was Senior Guard Gavin Schumann, with 22 points in the contest, shooting 9 for 14.

Schumann lead the campaign, with primary assistance from Senior Guard TeNale Roland, as USI dominated the first half 43-27. Coming out of the locker room with a 16-point lead in the second half, USI quickly stretched the lead to a 28-point difference before the end of the game. The final score was 82-54 as the eagles came out on top.

After last year’s team and its elite performance on the court, a season opener blow out met the expectations of USI men’s basketball fans. With the return of Schumann, and the addition of key players such as Roland, USI might have the best squad since the National Championship team of 1994.

Coming off of the loss to Dayton a week before the season opener, some may have been skeptic of the upcoming Eagles’s season. What skeptics such as these forget is that Dayton is one of the top Division I schools in the country, making an appearance in the NCAA Division I tournament three times in the last ten years.

On top of that, it had its best season in the past decade in the season prior to its competition with USI. Some would assume that the Eagles were to lose against Dayton in a tune up match type scenario, but never the less USI is a team to look out for in the weeks to come and I believe we can all expect big things from them this year.

Coming off of a win over NCAA Division I University of Evansville, the women’s squad opened with Malone University Friday.

Unfortunately, the team was defeated in its regular season debut. After defeating the Purple Aces for the first time in the history of exhibition matches between the cross town rivals, the team’s loss against Malone came as a shocker.

After such a great feat of defeating adversity, you would expect the team to come out with momentum in its season opener. The loss may be a fluke or it may be a warning sign for the upcoming season. But with the talent the Eagles show, the team has all the tools it needs to put together a winning season in the weeks to come.

Although the Eagles came out with a strong lead in the first half against Malone, it was quickly deterred when the Pioneers dominated the majority of the first half.

USI appeared to be defeated before half time. The Eagles headed to the locker room trailing Malone 37-28. The Malone Pioneers went on to defeat the Eagles 75-65.

Leading the team in points for the Eagles was Senior Forward Anna Hackert, who earned 17 of the team’s 65 points.

Senior Guard Autumn Miller scored 14 points and Senior Forward Mary O’Keefe put up 12. With three experienced players like these, I think the team has a great season ahead of it.