While many students were home or on vacation, the UIS basketball program was practicing, having two-a-days, and playing games against tough competition, in and out of conference.

Respectively, the men’s and women’s teams stood at 7-9 (2-5 GLVC) and 8-7 (2-5 GLVC) as classes started.

Both head coaches – Bill Walker for the men, Mark Kost for the women – said that the athletes worked hard over break and although their teams had some losses, they still worked tirelessly.

The men’s team started the season off with a few tough exhibition games against Northwestern University and Bradley University, in which the Prairie Stars put up a strong fight but couldn’t bring home the win.

Still, Walker said that it was “a good experience and great challenge playing against Northwestern who is a legit and possible tourney team, and Bradley was a competitive game. We had to shoot a little better playing with them, but it was a good experience overall.”

Starting their regular season schedule of games in and out of conference, the men’s team had a shaky start, going 3-4 in November alone.

Walker, now in his third season as head coach, said, “I’m not too thrilled with our record, but we have had some tough obstacles, having three guys out due to injuries, and it’s hard to account for losing Bahari Amaya (ACL injury), Mark Weems (ACL injury), and Logan Gonce (stress fracture in the foot) who we lost two games ago. Those are three high-impact guys and it’s hard to overcome losing them. But the upside is that we put our freshmen in to play and they’ve responded really well.”

Conference play hasn’t been very easy either, as the Stars fell to Bellarmine (67-63) and Southern Indiana (86-75) earlier in the season. But in the past week the Prairie Stars overcame William Jewell (89-85) and McKendree (92-89) after taking close losses to Truman State (83-72), Quincy (81-71), and Rockhurst (72-65).

Walker brought up how junior Eddie Longmeyer, sophomore Zach Steinberg, senior Paxton Harmon, and sophomore Vince Walker have really stepped up and have taken a lot of leadership on and off the court by currently leading the team stat sheets in scoring, rebounding, blocked shots, assists, and minutes played.

Walker said, “Although we have had quite a few losses, they have been in the last minutes of play where we just couldn’t make up the points needed to take the win.”

The men’s team still has 11 straight conference games left in the season before the GLVC tournament.

The women’s team has also had a very competitive season so far.

Head coach Mark Kost said, “We started with the GLVC/GLIAC Challenge where we beat Lake Superior State and the lost at the buzzer against Hillsdale College, a team who beat us soundly last year. We then played in the Kentucky Wesleyan Classic, beating Trevecca Nazerene and losing to Kentucky Wesleyan.”

The women’s team then got off to a good start in the regular season, going 3-3 in late November up to mid-December.

Now in his second season as head coach, Kost said, “We suffered some really rough losses against Southern Indiana, Northwestern in our exhibition game, and then again against Rockhurst where they were shooting really well.”

Kost is very proud of the girls, but the current story for the team has been playing well, but just coming up short of finishing the game with the win.

Regarding conference play, the Lady Prairie Stars have so far lost to Bellarmine (66-63), Southern Indiana (89-62), Truman State (76-71), William Jewell (62-55), and Rockhurst (86-66), but have beaten Quincy (82-53) and McKendree (59-53).

Kost went on to say, “This year we’re better, stronger, we brought in more talent and new players, and the next step is to win those close games and finish strong.”

As both teams will be finishing up their regular season games by the end of February, both coaches are looking forward to the next 11 conference games before the tournament. But both coaches are also uncertain due to the fact that they are playing in a very competitive and challenging conference.

Making the tournament is definitely achievable, but the Prairie Stars will have their work cut out for them.