By Justin Jarrett
As recently as Thursday afternoon, less than 48 hours before the USCB Sand Sharks were set to tip off their inaugural basketball season, it was still hard to envision how the USCB Center would be transformed into something that would pass for an NCAA Division II college hoops venue.
The building was designed for student recreation and intramurals and to house the growing athletics department, which until its opening in January 2015, had operated in temporary buildings known aptly and not-so-affectionately as “the trailers.”
By comparison, it was the Taj Mahal. But pulling off the magic trick of turning it into the home of the Sand Sharks before Saturday was no easy task. Seating was still being put in place up until game day, and two sets of seat-back bleachers were late to arrive and will be in place for future games. It was a fight to the finish to pull it off without much of a dress rehearsal.
To envision what unfolded this weekend in The Tank was one thing, but to execute it to the level the team at USCB did was another.
From the army of volunteers staffing the scorer’s table and Sun City’s own “Suntones” performing the national anthem and other Veterans Day tributes to the raucous student sections along each baseline and the Finnegan mascot running to midcourt to wave the victory flag — twice! — everything hit the right note.
And that’s before you even get to the basketball, which was the biggest unknown in this tightrope act.
How could you know what to expect from two USCB teams that had never played a game together, with only a handful of players between them with any collegiate experience whatsoever?
The Sand Sharks women had Sharon Versyp and her 418 career victories in their corner, but they only had nine healthy players remaining on the roster, and that number would decrease by one before the end of the opener. Nonetheless, junior college transfer Shaniya Rose provided a steadying presence early, former Calvary Day standout Mahkayla Premo played with poise and made big shots, and a fearless and determined bunch of freshmen helped lay the first brick in the foundation they came to the Lowcountry to build.
The energy in the building belied the three-digit capacity of the makeshift arena, and it ratcheted up to another level when Ron Fudala’s men took the floor. The Sand Sharks met the mood of the assembled faithful from the outset and put on a show to the tune of a 130-88 win ripe with rim-rattling dunks and raining 3-pointers.
JUCO transfer Kevaughn Price set the tone with his dynamic play and physicality, flirting with a triple-double, and 6-11 freshman Marcus Overstreet made us marvel at how many coaches missed on him coming out of Chicago.
The road ahead is littered with much greater challenges, and as Fudala said during Tuesday’s “USCB All-Access” coaches show at Okatie Ale House, “The Peach Belt is gonna be a bear.”
But now we have seen a glimpse of what to expect from USCB basketball, and it’s so much more than we could have imagined.
Justin Jarrett is the sports editor of The Island News and the founder of LowcoSports.com. He was the sports editor of the Island Packet and the Beaufort Gazette for 6½ years. He has a passion for sports and community journalism and a questionable sense of humor.
