Most sports are, in some ways at least, a game of percentages.

Take a look at any stat sheet and you'll figure that out pretty easily.

For both Freed-Hardeman basketball teams, percentages have very much played a role in their wins and losses over the course of this season and particularly in the last few weeks.  Lately, it's been a role reversal for the two teams.

From late November through early January, it was the Lions who were struggling with the percentage game.  After starting the season 7-1, they lost five of six games thanks at least in some part to poor shooting from 3-point range.  In their first eight games, FHU shot 50.7 percent from the field and 35.3 percent from beyond the arc; in their next six, the Lions shot 44.9 percent from the field and 27.6 percent from 3-point range.

Fortunes quickly reversed in their last two games, though.  The Lions have shot 43.8 percent (21-for-48) from beyond the arc and 52.9 percent (63-for-119) overall in a pair of blowout wins over Trevecca and Martin Methodist, percentages much more in line with the 7-1 start to the season.

So what's been the difference?

Pretty simple, according to head coach Jason Shelton.

"They went in," he said.  "It's basketball.  That's just how it is.  We've been doing the same things in practices and games [as we did before]."

The same thing could be said for the Lady Lions, who are now suffering through the same type of slump that plagued their counterparts for the better part of a month.  Unfortunately for the women, their slump hit at a most inopportune time - the start of conference play.

After averaging 84.8 points per game during a non-conference schedule that was ranked as one of the toughest in the NAIA by the Massey Ratings while shooting 45.0 percent from the field and 38.1 percent from 3-point range, the brakes were slammed on the Lady Lions' offense.  In their four conference games, FHU is shooting 41.1 percent from the field and 29.6 percent from 3-point range.  The result has been an average of 59.3 points per game in their first four conference contests.

Like the men's team, the Lady Lions' shooters have been getting good looks at the basket.  The only difference lately is, the shots just haven't been going in.

But there's no need for FHU fans to panic.  The results from the first 13 games are much more representative of the team's shooting prowess than the last four.  As Coach Shelton said, that's basketball.  Sometimes the shots just don't go in, no matter how open you are or how great your form is.

Just as the percentages have started to come back around to the Lions' favor, so they will for the Lady Lions.

And my guess is that it's going to be sooner rather than later.