ARCATA, Calif. – Humboldt State's men's basketball team will host its 2017-18 home opener Monday night against Pacific Union at 6 p.m. at Lumberjack Arena.
 
After an encouraging start to the season and a 90-81 win over Palm Beach Atlantic (Fla.) this past weekend, the team lost its final two games of the Disney Division II Tip-Off Classic, falling to Saint Leo 66-65 and Upper Iowa 60-55.
 
Tyras Rattler Jr. led the Jacks in their first contest with 22 points and paced them in their second tilt as well with 14 points before Colin Caslick stepped up in their final game of the weekend with  a couple threes off the bench as part of his 11 points.
 
"We learned a lot about our basketball team," said Head Coach Steve Kinder. "About our new roster of guys, our coaching staff. We traveled well together, and our camaraderie and our chemistry on the team was surprisingly good. After winning a game and dropping a very close game and being competitive in the third game where we were down by a lot and came back, showed some character and almost won that game."
 
The Jacks were down 31-22 at the half against Upper Iowa and saw their squad down by as many as 22 points before rallying late to make the game close, drawing to within two points in the waning moments.
 
Coach Kinder spoke about seeing the team's rebounding as a strength, whereas in the past few years this hasn't been the case, and remarked on his team's ability to go inside and play physical basketball.
 
Kinder said they will look to "clean things up" in advance of the team's home date with Pacific Union and "hurry up fast, quick," and get ready to host Chico State on Saturday, Nov. 18 in Lumberjack Arena in a game that will be televised on ESPN3.
 
Coach Kinder spoke of there not being a lot of time to "polish things up" though the Lumberjacks' had some good experience on the road. He said one area of emphasis would be defining roles and determining who should be taking outside shots, saying there were a lot of green lights heading into this weekend and there was some "letting kids express themselves and play with some freedom."
 
Coach Kinder also wanted his squad's offensive rebounding and transition game to lead to some high-percentage shots, saying that if the team had simply just taken high-percentage shots this weekend, the outcomes may have been different.
 
"The most positive thing about our basketball team right now is our depth," said the coach. "We played every guy in every game and everybody had a contribution. Outside of Tyras, we don't have one particular player who's scoring a lot of points. It's spread-out and we're sharing the ball well."
 
Davasyia Hagger, who almost had a double-double in the team's game against Saint Leo with 12 points and eight rebounds, said, "I think we learned a ton about ourselves. We learned a lot about each other on and off the court in the five days spending so much time with one another, in the hotel, eating together."
 
Asked about the biggest point of emphasis moving forward, Hagger spoke of the need to clean things up defensively and said that offensively, there is a lot of depth on the squad.
 
For his part, Coach Kinder was glowing in his depiction of Hagger: "Davasyia is our big guy inside, a tough kid and certainly plays honest and hard every time out. Every minute he gives us he's a great presence inside. We're very excited about what he brings to the program; he brings a lot of maturity to our van rides, our flights and our hotel situations and we're excited to have him on board."
 
Monday's game against Pacific Union tips off at 6 p.m.