The old cliche in basketball is, “You live by the three or die by the three.”

The Haskell Indian Nations University men’s basketball team died by the three Wednesday at Coffin Complex, while its opponent, McPherson College, was most definitely living by them in an 82-71 victory.

“I think it’s more shots just aren’t being knocked down right now,” said Haskell coach Jamie Morrison about his team going 3-of-16 from beyond the arc. “I don’t think it’s a confidence problem. We’re just struggling with some things. Tonight, we got (12) offensive rebounds, and some second shots, which we didn’t do the night before, so I’m not too worried about the shots. As long as they’re good shots, I’m confident they’ll go down, and we’ll be all right in that department.”

On the other hand, the Bulldogs (3-2) made eight of 18 from three-point range – four of their first five goals came via threes. Their three-point shooting was so unreal that even the lob from half-court banked in as the buzzer sounded at the end of the game.

For the Fightin’ Indians (1-5), not even their top two scorers – Kirk Brown (16 points) and Cedar Anderson (12) – made a three. Each only attempted one.

But Wacy Weeks said the athleticism of those two freshmen was sparking Haskell on offense.

“I don’t think there’s a guy in this league that can stay in front of Cedar, and I don’t think there’s a guy in this league that’s as athletic as Kirk Brown,” said Weeks, who finished with 11 rebounds, but was 2-for-12 from the field in his second game back from injury. “Both of those guys contribute to us, simply because they’re athletes, really.”

It was the same story for Haskell’s women in their 55-46 loss to McPherson.

“Those are some bad numbers – we shot 4-for-24 (from three),” said Haskell coach Phil Homeratha, who had mentioned changing the offensive game plan following a 2-for-26 performance from three-point range in a 65-52 loss to Bacone. “We’re going to have to change to where we’re going more to the basket.

While HINU continues to figure out how the offense will run, the full-court press defense worked well against an undefeated Bulldogs squad.

The Fightin’ Indians picked up 12 steals en route to forcing 27 turnovers – 10 of which came off of the press.

“We are fast,” said sophomore guard Kortney Smith, who led the team with nine rebounds.