The members of the Saints men’s club basketball team have two things in mind this break: resting and staying healthy.

The team is hoping the break will offer them time to rejuvenate and begin the second half of their season when they travel to Coastal Bend College on Jan. 21, 2008.

“Everybody’s focus will hopefully be to come with the state of mind that we’ve got to rebound from a slow start in the first half of the season and come out strong in the second half,” small forward/shooting guard DJ Rodriguez said.

The team suffered a hard loss to Northwest Vista College on Dec. 5 to close out the first half of their season. The team attributes the loss not to being outplayed by their opponent but to their own lack of intensity on both sides of the court.

“It (the loss) wasn’t a reflection on, ‘Oh, they did this to stop us.’ We pretty much didn’t show up to play, especially on the defensive end,” center/power forward Danny Sommers said.

Rodriguez echoes his teammate’s post-game comments.

“We had a poor shooting effort. Everybody was off,” Rodriguez said. “We didn’t execute on defense, giving them too many shots, too many open transition shots. Transition defense was pretty horrible. They just capitalized on our weaknesses.”

More than mid-way through the second half, the Saints also suffered the loss of their head coach Frank Hernandez, who was ejected after receiving two technical fouls by the game’s officials. Hernandez was responding to the official not calling a timeout to allow injured Saints guard Anthony Gomez to get off the court.

“Coach didn’t step outside of any boundaries as being a coach and being more concerned about his player than the game,” Rodriguez said. “All he did was question the officials, how all three of them could not see it (Gomez’s injury). He got one technical just for being on the court. I don’t think it was warranted for him to get ejected. I think it was warranted for the officials to be more together and on task.”

Rodriguez said he does not believe the loss can be solely attributed to bad officiating but does believe the officials failed to complete their responsibilities.

“You can’t blame the officials for our shortcomings, but, if there is a player hurt, it is only their responsibility to control the game,” Rodriguez said.

According to Sommers, the incident did not change the team’s opinion of their coach but rather reiterated their trust in the team’s leadership.

“Honestly, I am not mad at coach for defending us, and that is what I felt like he did,” Sommers said. “He saw that the officials were trying to do us wrong, and he was trying to protect us. That is why we respect him, and we love him.”