Lions back among hunters

The Vanguard University men’s basketball program lost its top three players and five of its top eight scorers from last season. But perhaps the biggest thing the Lions have left behind is the target on their backs.

Following an NAIA national championship season in 2013-14, last year’s squad struggled under the pressure of being circled on everyone’s schedule. The result was a 16-15 campaign and a fifth-place finish in the Golden State Athletic Conference.

“I don’t think it can be overestimated what it really means to get everybody’s best shot every night,” said Vanguard Coach Rhett Soliday, entering his sixth season. “We were the hunters the year before and everybody was hunting us last year.”

The trio of Chris Gorman, DeAngelo Jones and Keith Mason, last year’s top three scorers who combined to produce 40 points per game and started for the NAIA championship team, have all graduated. Left behind is a blend of seven returners and eight newcomers.

Foremost among the veterans is 6-foot-8 sophomore Zach Allmon, who averaged 10 points and 6.9 rebounds per game last season, when he started 26 games.

Also back is senior guard Myles Smith (4.3 points per game with 21 starts), and sophomore Malachi Hoosein, who averaged 5.8 points per contest off the bench last season.

Allmon anchors the front line that also includes oft-injured TJ Burke, a 6-9 senior who has not had a healthy season in his previous four years at this level, including back-to-back ACL reconstructions in 2012-13 and 2013-14. Burke, who began his career at UC Riverside, scored 10 points in 10 games last season. If healthy, he is expected to bolster things in the paint.

Smith is one of three players battling for two starting spots at the point and the off-guard role. Jaamon Echols, a 5-11 senior transfer from Western Washington, is the Lions’ best perimeter athlete, Soliday said, while 5-8 junior Brandon Hood averaged nearly 20 points per game at West Los Angeles Community College last season.

“When we put Myles and Echols on the floor together, both can really create havoc defensively,” said Soliday, who terms the athleticism up and down the roster as the best he has had in his six seasons at the helm. “We think our guards can play with anyone.

“It’s yet to be determined if our skill level is going to mute our athleticism,” said Soliday, whose team opens with an exhibition at former GSAC rival Concordia on Friday at 7 p.m, then begins the regular season Nov. 3 at home against La Verne. “But in terms of guys who can run and jump and guard — all those things you really want to have to play the way we really want to play, which is high-tempo, high-pressure — we have the right pieces. We just have to put it together.”

Additional pieces include sophomore guard Christian Ware-Berry (33 points in nine games last season) and community college transfers Antonio Bishop (Polk State in Florida) and Victor Evans (Odessa in Texas).

Soliday said Hoosein and Ware-Berry are battling for a starting wing spot.

Bishop, a 6-8 forward, is awaiting eligibility clearance from the NAIA that could come any day, Soliday said.

Evans, a 6-4 forward, is a defensive dynamo who averaged 7.9 points in 28 games at Odessa last year, after playing as a freshman at Los Angeles Pierce Community College.

“[Evans] is a really good athlete that can be a matchup problem at the four,” Soliday said. “He is powerful and athletic and can guard the one through five spots. I really like him. I think he is going to be a versatile play-making guy for us. He has a high IQ and he knows how to play.”

Brandon Brothers, a 6-4 freshman out of Glendora High, has made the adjustment quickly to the collegiate level and is expected to contribute.

“He’s highly skilled, he can really shoot it, and he’s a tough kid who thinks he belongs,” Soliday said of Brothers.

The Lions were picked to finish fourth in the GSAC preseason poll, behind Arizona Christian (ranked No. 4 nationally in the preseason), No. 7-ranked Hope International and No. 17-ranked Westmont.

Westmont defeated Hope International in the NAIA Tournament semifinals last year, before falling in the title game.

The GSAC gauntlet will not include perennial championship contender Concordia, which is competing at the NCAA Division II level.

“It’s a bummer for me losing Concordia,” said Soliday, who played and was an assistant coach at the school. “It’s the premier team in the conference the last 10 years. But all four GSAC teams advanced past the first round of the NAIA Tournament last season and the GSAC almost had four teams in the Elite Eight [including Arizona Christian and Concordia].”

Vanguard, which lost seven of its last 10 games last season, opens conference play Dec. 8 at Westmont.