Moving on

That's all the DWU men's basketball team can do after Saturday's loss. Move on. Well, no. First, they can learn from it. Then move on. That loss cannot sit on them all year, or they will be doomed.

For those that don't know, Saturday the Tigers had (at one point) a 17-point lead on Briar Cliff. The Chargers whittled that down, and it was tied at 67 late in the game. DWU got the ball in the last 15 seconds thanks to a BCU offensive foul, and Mike Lee missed a three after DWU called its last timeout. The Tigers pulled down the rebound, and called a timeout on the floor - with no timeouts left. For those that aren't aware, that's a technical foul. So BCU hit two free throws with 0.9 seconds left. Carde Pennington put up a good three-point shot, but it went in and out as the buzzer went off.

Heartbreaking. Hard to swallow. And the worst part - it's not the first crazy loss for DWU this season. It's the second. On Nov. 12, a winless Kansas Wesleyan team (that looked TERRIBLE the night before against S.D. Tech) was within two points of the Tigers in the final seconds of the game, picked off an errant pass (pass? Throw? Lob in the air?) and put up a desperation three that went in. The guy was literally falling backwards, and yet the ball banked off the backboard and went in.

Two losses that are very hard to handle. DWU could very realistically be 7-0 right now and have beaten one of the GPAC's toughest teams. But it isn't, and the Tigers have to learn from that and move on. Right now. Tonight they take on a York team that has been improving in recent years. Next week, they start a steady GPAC schedule that has little to no "gimmie" games or for-sure wins. It will be interesting to see how these Tigers handle this. One thing's for sure - they are going to give me a heart attack before this season is over. The past three games have been decided by a grand total of four points. Yeesh.

The Tiger women look good early this season. They picked up a nice win against a tough Valley City team. DWU also looked good in the first half against No. 5 Briar Cliff, and were only down by nine at halftime. The Chargers forced some turnovers in the second half and started shooting better, but DWU was right in that game for awhile. Amanda Hart is having a good year; she leads the nation (not just the GPAC, the NATION) in threes per game (4.4) and is a big reason the Tigers were so close for so long against BCU. She was named the GPAC Player-of-the-Week this afternoon.

Fall sports are officially over here at DWU; all the All-GPAC awards are out and outdoor sports done for the season. Congrats to all our all-conference athletes. This year was especially big for the men's soccer program, which had its first first- and second-team honorees since 2006 (Hugo Gonzalez earned first-team honors and Eric Christianson and Jordan Werner were named to the second team).

Crazy to think basketball and wrestling have been going for almost three weeks now. But at least that means it's Thanksgiving break! Hope everyone has a wonderful day full of family and friends. Don't forget to let those you love know how thankful you are for them.