The men’s basketball team struggled to work out early season kinks as it went 0-2 at the Ottawa Classic last weekend.

The ‘Cats got off to a slow start at the Classic with a 91-71 loss Friday night to hosting team Ottawa University.

Baker came out strong Saturday and ready to take out McPherson College. Battling through the first half, the ‘Cats stood at a 43-41 lead going into halftime.

“Against McPherson College we did have a small lead at halftime but made a few early turnovers in the second half and put ourselves in the hole,” coach Rick Weaver said.

Those few turnovers, combined with a struggle to put points on the board, left the team in a position it could not recover from. The team put up only 26 points in the second half taking the final score to 81-69, McPherson.

Forward Heath Baird led the team with 17 points followed by senior Justin Houser who drained 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Weaver said the game was lost in a matter of minutes when McPherson was able to strike while the ‘Cats were down.

“Against McPherson ,they had nine 3-pointers, which kind of hurt us,” Weaver said. “We had two or three bad minutes to start the second half against them, which kind of put us at an uphill battle.”

Senior Nick Iversen said poor defense left the team struggling to recover from McPherson’s scoring streak.

“We just didn’t play well,” he said. “We really broke down defensively, and they just really got the best of us this weekend.”

With a good group of newcomers, Weaver said the main goal from these early games is rebuilding the team’s chemistry.

“We still have a few new guys that we are trying to work into the system, but it was a chance to get some experience, and we have a few more games before the conference starts the first week in December,” Weaver said.

Junior Brock Entner said right now the main goal for the team is improving on-court communication.

“We have got to pick up our defense as a team and work on our communication during the games,” he said.

The team will face Washburn University in an exhibition game Tuesday.