The Erie BayHawks have now lost four of their last five games after falling at Iowa, 95-88, Saturday night.
Watched the game and the same song rang true for the BayHawks. Now they did make free throws Saturday, going 11-of-12, but the BayHawks are turnover prone. They had 21 total turnovers in Saturday’s loss.
Newly acquired point guard Cliff Clinkscales, who played 43 games for Erie last season before being waived, had six of those turnovers. Now he’s a great ball handler, but Clinkscales is going to have to get familiar with his new teammates and vice versa. Clinkscales did lead the team in assists with seven.
Wanted to see how John Bryant would bounce back after Erie coach John Treloar decided not to play him in Thursday's loss to Maine. The 6-foot 11-inch, 305-pound center had 12 points, eight rebounds and two blocks and he only committed three fouls after struggling to stay on the court due to foul trouble in two games against Maine.
Saturday's effort was not as good as he was in opening the season with four consecutive double-doubles, but what he provided Erie on Saturday night was an improvement from his play against Maine.
Ivan Harris broke out with a 28-point effort, but consider this. He got those points on 22 shot attempts, making 12. Three other perimeter starters - Donell Taylor, Jackie Manuel and Cedric Jackson - shot a combined 10-of-32.
As improved as Manuel is as a shooter, he's still not a guy you can count on to knock down Js consistently. So him taking 12 shots is taking shot attempts away from Harris. Taylor can create shots for himself, but when he went 4-of-15. Jackson wasn't a great shooter in college, has improved, but he went 1-of-5 Saturday.
Bryant only attempted nine shots. At some point, Erie's got to figure out who should get more shots and who should shoot less. The season is still young so no need to panic, but if Erie doesn't fix the turnover problem, then it's going to continue to struggle regardless of who's shooting the ball.
Give Cliff a couple of games, he won’t continue to turn it over. Two or three of them were because J Bryant did not seal off his man when the post pass was coming. The defensive players were real quick to step around him. He’s real slow. As you know Cliff led the league in assist/to ratio last year, So he’ll be alright.