The LBWCC Saints men’s basketball team has jumped out to a 6-5 start to season, and look to continue to the strong effort as conference play begins today.

“We have been pretty good so far,” Saints’ head coach Ricky Knight said. “We aren’t playing great or anything, but we always get better. If we want to make the state tournament, we have to get better.”

The thing that sticks out the most to Knight, as needing to improve, is the Saints’ defense.

“Our biggest negative right now would have to be our defense,” Knight said. “We are letting to many people drive to the basket against us, and we have to get better on defensive boards.”

Improvement is needed Knight said, but it’s something he knows the players are capable of doing.

“We have to guys to that can do what we need to do,” Knight said. “Now, we just have to get it going. When we improve our defense, that is going to create things on offense.”

The Knights’ offense, Knight said, has been alright, but that he needs more players to step up and score.

“Our offense has been all right,” Knight said. “We have two guys in Nick Green and Kenneth Keith who have been our leading scorers this year. I’m hoping that we can get a few more of these guys to contribute each night. In college basketball, you have to have four or five guys that can put it on a consistent basis.”

Green has been the leading scorer for the Saints, and also ranks in the top five in conference with 19.1 points per game. Green had a season-high 36 points in a loss to Lawson State, and put up 30 points in a win over Southern Union.

Keith is the Saints’ second leading scorer with an average of 16.8 points per game. Keith’s season-high is 29 points, which came in a win over the University of Mobile. Keith has six games this season in which he scored 20 or more points.

As a team, the Saints are averaging 64.8 points per game.

Knight said the Saints have to improve quickly with conference action beginning today.

“We have a big game here Thursday (tonight) against Jeff Davis. It’s the first conference game of the season, and you always want to start out 1-0 in conference.”

Knight said that Saints would have their work cut out for them when it comes to conference play this season.

“Our conference is going to be very good this year,” Knight said. “Every single team has improved, the guys on the bottom last year will be competitive this year. That is why we have to play better defense, or we will be in trouble.”

LBWCC and Jeff Davis will tip-off at 7 p.m., at LBW.