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The Scarlet & Black

Marx enters 1,000 point club, men’s basketball falls

Vinny+Curta+%E2%80%9919+in+action+versus+Lake+Forest+College+last+week.+Curta+led+the+Pionners+with+19+points.+++%0APhoto+by+Jeff+Li
Vinny Curta ’19 in action versus Lake Forest College last week. Curta led the Pionners with 19 points. Photo by Jeff Li

Gabe Lehman

lehmanga@grinnell.edu

Vinny Curta ’19 in action versus Lake Forest College last week. Curta led the Pionners with 19 points.    Photo by Jeff Li
Vinny Curta ’19 in action versus Lake Forest College last week. Curta led the Pionners with 19 points.
Photo by Jeff Li

The men’s basketball team continued its struggle in what has been a lost season for the Pioneers. Grinnell fell by a final score of 95-78 against Lake Forest College last Saturday, marking the sixth in a row for the Pioneers.

The Pioneers now sit at an 8-13 record, putting them in ninth place in the Midwest Conference. Their position is a disappointment considering that Grinnell played in the Conference championship game last year.

Head coach David Arseneault is particularly unsettled about the team’s poor standing, and he takes responsibility. The coach believes he did not put his players in the best position to succeed.

“The reality is that too few of our top ten players have gelled in their playing roles. I have to take some blame for this, as in hindsight I now believe that I asked several players to play roles that were just not suited for their skills or mindset,” Arseneault wrote in an email to The S&B.

Kyle Parker ’17 acknowledged that role changes this year may have played a disadvantage to the team.

“Literally every single person on the team has had a new role from what they did last year,” Parker said.

However, the week was not without its triumphs. Julian Marx ’17 scored 12 against Lake Forest last Saturday, moving him over 1,000 points for his career.

Parker could not say enough good things about his classmate and close friend.

“It is a remarkable achievement that he has,” Parker said. “All the hard work he puts in is showing off. I am extremely proud of him. He is one of my best friends on the team; he is like my brother.”

Coach Arseneault was equally proud of Marx.

“Julian is quite possibly the best shooter I have ever coached,” Arseneault` wrote. “We have had better scorers, but purely from a shooting standpoint he is remarkable. That he has been able to score 1,000 points through his junior year without really being either a gifted one-on-one player or having a knack for getting to the foul line is pretty amazing.”

Only 25 Pioneers are in the 1,000 point club, making it quite the achievement. With over a full year left of his college career, the sky is truly the limit for Marx.

While this season may not have gone as well as Pioneer fans would have wanted, Parker believes the team’s struggles will be short-lived.

“Next year we are going to be laughing about this season,” Parker said.

However, the class of 2016 will not get a chance to see the changes that Parker forecasts for next year. The seniors will play their final game on Saturday and their presence will be missed immeasurably. Parker believes the seniors have set the example for how to act during a trying season.

“The seniors have been on teams that have been very successful, so to show their team that they still have positive energy even though they’re on a losing team, their last season shows how much character they have,” Parker said.

Fans will have their final chance to see these Pioneers in action on Saturday, Feb. 20, when Grinnell hosts Illinois College at 1 p.m.

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