Men's college basketball: Galaya's play a key to Roadrunners' 10-4 run

It’s no wonder State Fair men’s basketball fans — and even the coaching staff at first — have trouble pronouncing his name.

Antonin Galaya, pronounced AHN-tuh-non Guh-LIE-uh, is not a name that rolls off the tongue, ranking right up there with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski on the hard-to-pronounce/spell meter.

But shooting an efficient 50 percent from the floor and a robust 48 percent from 3-point range, both easily team highs, it’s about time fans learn more about the French Caribbean native who almost never came to be a Roadrunner.

Rewind to the start of summer, and Galaya wasn’t even on the recruiting radar of second-year State Fair head coach Kevin Thomas, who was looking to build on last year’s 24-7 team that finished one game away from making it to the NJCAA national tournament.

And for good reason. The 6-foot-5, 185-pound guard was coming off a listless freshman campaign at Polk State College in Winter Haven, Fla., where he averaged just 4.3 points and 2.2 rebounds per contest in 21 games.

“It just wasn’t the right situation,” said Galaya, who was recruited by several Atlantic Coast Conference and Conference USA schools. “I got playing time, but there’s coaches and systems that just aren’t the right fit. I didn’t have a good year and I wanted to start fresh.”

With one scholarship left and less than a week from school starting, Thomas received a glowing recommendation from a contact at UNC-Greensboro, a school that recruited Galaya during his high school days at Charis Prep in Wilson, N.C.

It’s been smooth sailing ever since. Well, sort of.

“To be honest with you, he came in here a little out of shape and needed to get tougher,” Thomas said. “Early on, I wasn’t happy with his conditioning. He  was kind of fighting the coaching staff on his toughness and things like that. But we’ve been extremely tough on him and we called him out on it because we have high expectations. As you can see, he’s gotten a lot better.”

The transformation began to unfold after the fifth game for the sophomore, who was shooting just 35 percent from the floor (9 for 26) and averaging seven points per contest as the Roadrunners limped out to a 1-4 start.

But settling into the role of sixth man, Galaya proved his talents not only to the fans, but to his coaching staff and his teammates in the Roadrunners’ 106-75 victory over North Arkansas on Nov. 15 at the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center.

In that contest, Galaya scored a career-high 29 points, 27 of which came on a 9-for-11 effort from beyond the arc.

“Sometimes the rim just looks big,” Galaya said. “I just had to get used to the system. It’s a new system, new teammates, and I had to find out where I fit in and what role I was comfortable in. After a couple of games, I finally got comfortable.”

That’s putting it mildly.

Since then the Roadrunners are 10-4, and a key component of that stretch — which included an eight-game win streak and a 2-1 start to Region 16 play — has been the play of Galaya.

In the last 14 games, the wing is shooting 53 percent from the floor (59 for 111) and 48 percent (40 for 83) from 3-point land. In terms of efficiency, Galaya’s 3-point effort ranks second (behind Volunteer State Community College guard E.J. Perry’s 49 percent) among NJCAA athletes with 100 or more attempts from beyond the arc.

“He’s shooting really well and he’s really become our spark off the bench,” Thomas said.
Galaya prefers that role.

“There’s less pressure coming off the bench and I just try to bring energy to the game,” Galaya said. “As for as impact, I really like being the sixth man.”

There are, however, pressures associated with the sixth-man role, which is a tricky spot considering the expectations surrounding a player coming off the bench cold.

So how does Galaya stay hot? The 500 3-point shots he attempts every day go a long way.

“He works his tail off,” Thomas said. “First semester, I’d get into the office by 8 o’clock every morning and like clockwork, he’d be in the gym getting shots up.”

Galaya credits the volume of shots for his jaw-dropping accuracy.

“I’m in the gym every day on my time,” Galaya said. “The coaches know it’s not magic, it’s not luck.”

And it’s not luck that the Roadrunners are primed to win their first region championship since 1976.

“We have so many guys, not only Antonin, that are stepping up, and I think if we can continue the winning trend we set before the break, we have a great shot at winning the region this year,” Thomas said.

On the same page is Galaya, who — while most other community-college sophomores would be worried about their future playing days — is focused solely on elevating the Roadrunners to a historic season.

“My first objective is to win the region,” Galaya said. “The second is to go to the national tournament. The third is to graduate and then from there, see where I’m at. Everything has to be in order, and right now I’m only worried about this team.”