Wallace Community College Selma’s men’s basketball team is off to its best start since 1996, but the Patriots are still hungry for more.

The Patriots are 8-2 going into Saturday’s game at Lawson State in Birmingham. If Wallace wins Saturday, it’ll equal last season’s win total with about half a season still to play.

“We have got a lot of veteran guys who are coming in, they have bought into the culture, they have bought into being leaders, they have bought into the coaching staff, they have bought into the system and they are passing that culture down to the younger guys,” said Wallace coach Duane Evans, who is in his second year at the school.

Evans took the job in April 2015, so he was behind on the recruiting trail. With an offseason to fully recruit the area and eight sophomores on the roster, Evans has started the process of building a winning program at Wallace.

He’s fully implemented the dribble-drive offense, most famously used by Kentucky coach John Calipari, and it’s showing in the results.

Wallace is averaging 67.5 points per game this year — up almost 10 from last year.

Wallace has had several offensive and defensive standouts this season.

Gene Davis, a sophomore that plays both point guard and shooting guard, leads the team in scoring and is sixth in the Alabama Community College Conference at 19.4 points per game. After spending part of his freshman season injured, Evans said Davis has emerged as an offensive standout.

Zavieun Jackson is averaging 14.0 points per game and 10.8 rebounds per game, the most in the ACCC. Darren Hulbert, a freshman point guard, is leading the conference with 5.3 assists per game. LaByron Harris, a 6-foot-7 sophomore, has 35 blocks, which also leads the ACCC.

Evans believes Wallace can, and must, get better if the school hopes to win its first ACCC Conference Championship later this year. A conference championship would also mean a spot in the National Junior College Athletic Conference in Kansas in March.

“We as coaches try to get our guys to see the big picture, as opposed to seeing tomorrow or next week,” Evans said. “These games are important and we are trying to get better, but most importantly we have so much growth left in us.”

On Saturday, the Patriots have one of their biggest tests of the season when they play 2-7 Lawson in Birmingham. The ACCC Championship will be held at Lawson later this year, so Evans said this weekend is like a trial run.

During Thanksgiving week, the Patriots lost their second game due to a lack of focus, Evans said.

“I think that was one of the biggest things that happened to us against East Central Mississippi. We got down there and kind of lost focus,” Evans said. “Between the hotels, eating in buffets and things of that nature we actually lost focus on what we were down there to do.”

After playing Lawson, Wallace will hit the road to play Itawamba (Miss.) and Shelton State in Tuscaloosa. The Patriots won’t play their next home game until Dec. 15 when they take on Shelton State.

“The big picture is Kansas, we would love to get to Kansas and we are taking it one step, one day a time. We know our first step is to secure a conference championship, then if we can win our conference that would be huge for us,” Evans said.