Lions MBB Opens Season Hosting University of Fort Lauderdale

AT A GLANCE
FMU Lions vs. University of Fort Lauderdale Eagles (1-0)
When: Thursday, October 28, 2021
Where: Florida Memorial, Miami Gardens, Fla. | FMU Wellness Center
Tip-off: 8 p.m.
Last Meeting: First Meeting
Live Stream: Link
Live Stats: Link
Tickets: General Admission $5 (Link)

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Florida Memorial University men's basketball team will open its 2021-22 season Thursday night when it hosts independent NAIA program University of Fort Lauderdale at 8 p.m. in the FMU Wellness Center.

It'll be the first-ever regular season meeting between the programs as the Lions will also be playing its first home game of the season.

Florida Memorial will allow for fans to attend home basketball events this season. Fans will be asked to wear a facial covering while inside the arena, no matter of their vaccination status, and exercise social distance when possible. Tickets for the Thursday's game can be purchased online at www.FMUAthletics.com/Tickets or at the ticket window in front of the Wellness Center on the day of the game.

FMU enters the 2021-22 season confident that it can have its best season under head coach Ansar Al-Ameen. Entering his fourth season, Al-Ameen has continued to shape and mold his team's roster – especially this season as he and his staff brought in 11 new players to surround a small core of returners.

Among the Lions' newcomers is a handful of hoopers who've spent time at NCAA Division-I programs. Senior guard Eric Hester spent time at the University of Florida, 6-foot-7 forward Jacobi Gordon played at the University of California at Berkeley, and 6-foot-8 graduate transfer Brent Holcombe played at Loyola University of Maryland prior to coming to Florida Memorial.

The new addition that Al-Ameen and The Sun Conference is expecting the biggest splash from this season is guard Corey Benton. A 6-foot-2 transfer guard from Columbia International University (S.C.), Benton was named a NCCAA First Team All-American this past season and left CIU as the school's all-time leading scorer.

Players like Benton, Holcombe, and Hester should benefit from playing with the litany of returning big men on the Lions' roster like 7-foot-2 freshman Nicodemo Majuec, 6-foot-10 center Jethro Tshisumpa, and 6-foot-9 jack-of-all-trades forward Cheikh Kebe.

Standing in Florida Memorial's way Thursday will be University of Fort Lauderdale, a relatively new collegiate program that is operates as an independent National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school. The Eagles (1-0) opened its season this past Tuesday with a 58-52 win over FMU's Sun Conference constituent Webber International University.

The Eagles seem to have already found the centerpiece of their offensive scheme in 6-foot-9 forward Jongkor Unguec. Unguec poured in 28 points on 11-of-17 shooting in Fort Lauderdale's win against the Warriors while also recording 3 steals and 2 blocks.

FMU does have the requisite "timber" to guard Unguec one-on-one with Majuec and Tshisumpa or along with help-side defense from Kebe or Al-Ameen could even slide Kebe down to guard the Eagles' big man.

Ultimately, Al-Ameen will be looking to see different lineups and groupings of players while the team tries to build continuity and looks to start the regular season with a victory for the first time since the 2014-15 season.

Follow Florida Memorial University Athletics on social media
Instagram: @GoFMULions/@FMU_MBB | Twitter: @GoFMULions | YouTube: Official FMU Lions

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