UVI Buccaneers, Lady Buccaneers face Southern-N.O. in 1st home game of season

The University of the Virgin Islands mens and womens basketball teams have been racking up the frequent flier miles over the first half of the 2024-2025 season.

But the Buccaneers and Lady Buccaneers finally get a chance to play on their home court and in games that actually counts in the standings this weekend when they host the Southern University of New Orleans Knights and Lady Knights.

The HBCU Athletic Conference doubleheader will be played Saturday afternoon at the UVI Elridge Blake Sports and Fitness Center on St.

Thomas.

The womens game will begin at 1 p.m.

Atlantic, followed by the mens game.

Yeah, weve been road warriors, man all of our games have been on the road, UVI mens coach Kevin Sheppard said.

But its going to be nice to play one game at home at least before we get back on the road again.

This will also be the first chance for the Buccaneers and Lady Bucs to face a team in the HBCUACs West Division the division that UVI is in.

All of their conference games so far have been against East Division teams in the HBCUACs two Crossover events.

The [Crossover games] in Ohio and Alabama just helped us to sharpen our offense, and grow and get our team chemistry together, UVI womens coach Stephanie Cooper said.

Even though we didnt win any games, we were able to compete.

They were able to see the importance of the practices and fundamentals to be successful in the conference.

The Buccaneers 4-6 overall, 3-4 HBCUAC West Division are playing in what appears to be the conferences toughest division, with three teams within a game of each other in the standings.

The Knights (8-10, 7-2 HBCUAC West Division) are one of those teams, sitting just a game back of frontrunner Tougaloo College (13-4, 8-1) and tied with Dillard University (11-5, 7-2).

Philander Smith University (13-5, 6-4) is right behind them, 112 games back.

Thats good we want to see where were at, Sheppard said.

Theres a lot of talent in the league, and anyone can beat anyone else, really.

But in our bracket, we do have some of the tougher teams.

However, UVI has shown that it can compete against the leagues tougher teams, as evidenced by its record from the two Crossover series.

The Buccaneers went 3-4, with wins over Fisk University (6-14, 4-7 HBCUAC East Division) and Wilberforce University (7-9, 5-6) in Ohio last month.

They also battled Stillman College (10-6, 8-1) and Talladega College (10-7, 4-5) to the final minutes in losses last week.

It was good to get a feel of those teams, Sheppard said.

We gave away two games we had two opportunities to win those games, and come away with a 5-2 record.

...

We just dropped the ball.

Im pleased with the effort its not easy playing three games in four days and traveling everywhere.

Its not an easy schedule, but were doing very well.

Other than the Keiser game (an 86-62 loss on Nov.

25), weve been in every game.

We gave ourselves an opportunity to win, and weve getting the respect of a lot of teams.

While the Lady Buccaneers remain winless 0-8 overall, 0-7 HBCUAC West Division entering Saturdays game against the Lady Knights (5-13, 3-6 HBCUAC West), they nearly pulled off their first win in the final game of the Alabama Crossover event, losing 53-43 to host-team Talladega College on Monday.

Yes, it was free throws we couldnt make our free throws, Cooper said.

If we would have made at least 60-70%, then we would have won the game just on our free throws alone.

Its going to be just our third game with a full roster and at home, so we should definitely have the energy.

We should come out with a decent chance..

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