Arena #143: McDermott Center - Incarnate Word vs. Southern Illinois-Edwardsville

Arena #143, the McDermott Center on the campus of the University of the Incarnate Word, kicked off a doubleheader day in the state of Texas.  Now, the main reason for heading to Texas for a few days was to see Gonzaga play at Texas A&M, but I had already visited Reed Arena in College Station 7 years ago to the day for Arena #37 so that game doesn’t count on Mission 351 this time.  As for the McDermott Center, let’s start with a quick rundown of the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) since I imagine 95% of folks have no idea this university exists, much less that they play basketball at the Division 1 level.  UIW is located on the east side of San Antonio, TX, uses the Cardinals nickname, and is a member of the Southland Conference for basketball.  The McDermott Center is basically configured and has a capacity comparable to a mid-level high school.  There’s no videoboard, no seats behind the basket, and plenty of practice hoops hanging from the rafters.  For this contest against the Southern Illinois-Edwardsville Cougars there were basically no fans either.  While the arena has a capacity around 2,000, the official box score listed an attendance of 96 for this game…definitely the smallest official attendance for a game I’ve attended.  The crowd was so sparse, my buddy and I were even asked to play in the halftime contest because they had no other options!  Since neither of these teams are that great, the game itself ended up being extremely competitive with SIUE pulling out the win on 2 free throws with a couple seconds left even though UIW nearly stole it with a half courter at the buzzer that banged off the heel of the hoop.

Front entrance of the McDermott Center

It's rare when the entire grandstands fit into one picture but they do here!

Incarnate Word on the offensive end of the floor

Incarnate Word drawing the charge late in the second half