January 19, 2003
A 45-minute heart-to-heart talk with his coach seems to have turned around Max Mombollet's basketball season. Perhaps it will also help The Citadel Bulldogs salvage their season.
Mombollet, a 6-8 junior from the Central African Republic, has sometimes been accused by coach Pat Dennis of becoming too "Americanized" for his own good. But since the pair's therapy session a couple of weeks ago, Mombollet has had three solid games in a row. On Saturday, he scored 21 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as the Bulldogs won their first Southern Conference game by 83-69 over struggling Western Carolina in front of 2,543 fans at McAlister Field House.
The victory snapped a two-game skid for the 6-9 Bulldogs (1-3 in the SoCon), who begin a difficult four-game stretch at Georgia Southern Tuesday before facing rival College of Charleston next Saturday.
"We really needed this one," said Mombollet, who made 17 of 19 free throws, the third-most free throws ever by a Citadel player. "We had lost three conference games in a row and we were picked to finish dead last. We need to prove we're not a last-place team."
Mombollet had plenty of help from guards Dante Terry and Erick Wilson, who both registered career-bests with 16 points each, and guard Clyde Wormley, who had 11. Wormley and Wilson provided sticky defense on Western Carolina sophomore sensation Kevin Martin, who scored 27 points but hit just 7 of 20 shots from the field as the Catamounts fell to 4-11 (1-3 SoCon).
Mombollet began the season in strong fashion with 34 points and 17 rebounds in the first two games, but slumped by failing to score in double figures during a five-game stretch that saw the Dogs lose four in a row. After Mombollet got two points and one rebound in a win over NAIA-member Emmanuel, Dennis called him into the office.
"I just wanted to remind Max that he's here in the U.S. for two reasons," Dennis said. "To get a great education in electrical engineering, and to have a great basketball career. Sometimes he loses focus and gets a little Americanized. It's a lot easier lifestyle here than in his home country. But I think he has regrouped and re-focused, and he's playing terrific ball for us. He's become a force inside, and each game he's getting better."
Mombollet, who played high school ball in Oviedo, Fla., scored 15 points with five rebounds at East Tennessee State after "the talk," and came back with 19 points and seven boards in a 69-54 loss to Wofford last Monday. Saturday's double-double was his first since the season opener.
"Coach just told me they really need me for the team, that I had to step it up," Mombollet said. "I played really good in the preseason, but then I kind of let it go. Now, I try to be the first one at practice and the last one to leave. I'm trying to play with more energy and to do every little thing to help the team."
The same message is being delivered now to senior forward Mike Joseph, the Bulldogs' leading scorer at 10.4 points per game. Joseph failed to play Saturday for the only the second time in his career. His minutes were absorbed mostly by Terry, the freshman who hit 4 of 5 from 3-point range. He hit two early treys after the Dogs fell behind by 9-2, helping to wipe out of the memory of last Monday's debacle against Wofford, when The Citadel missed 18 of their first 19 shots from 3-point range, going 4 of 23 overall.
The Bulldogs shot 9 of 20 (45 percent) from that distance against Western, with Wilson hitting 4 of 7.
"Dante's early threes were humongous," Dennis said. "They got us rolling, and our energy really picked up ... It was the best our kids had followed our game plan all year."
That included finding Martin, the 6-7 guard who was the second-leading freshman scorer in the nation last year, behind former VMI standout Jason Conley. Martin torched the Bulldogs for 39 points and seven 3-pointers in a double-overtime loss last year, but struggled to get open looks Saturday. "You're fading all over the place," WCU coach Steve Shurina told Martin at one point.
"We couldn't have done much better on him," Dennis said.
