After a 65-43 loss against Benilde St. Margaret’s junior Stayci Spates said the team struggled to carry out plays and rebound successfully.

“We didn’t do well rebounding defensively or offensively. We were just kind of catching and shooting instead of going through our plays like we learned,” Spates said. 

Park had a total of three games this week and had played Chaska the previous night Jan. 13. After a tough loss with a score of 90-63, Coach Arsenio Richardson said the fast paced schedule left the team little time to prepare.

“It was tough because we had a rescheduled game, so we really didn’t have any time to prepare. We played last night against Chaska. Then it was a quick turnaround to play Benilde,” Richardson said. “It’s just hard to get the preparation in, so the next time we play them hopefully we have a better effort.” 

Ending the first half with a score of 33-09, Sophomore Kiya Hegdahl said taking control of the game was difficult and that the team struggled to gain the upper hand.

“Everything that went wrong, we could have controlled. We let them do whatever they wanted and they dictated the game,” Hegdahl said. “We didn’t all step up the way we needed to.” 

As the game progressed, Hegdahl said the team lost sight of its motivation and what they were playing for. 

“We weren’t playing for one another,” Hegdahl said. “The number one thing is playing for one another. We didn’t do that and it took us out of the game.” 

In the future, Richardson said the team aims to work on defense tactics and mental focus, in hopes of improving its performance. 

“This lack of focus leads to a lot of mental mistakes,” Richardson said. “Our defense intensity wasn’t what it should have been. With way more defense intensity, we will play better against them next time.”

Park is next set to face off against Waconia at 7 p.m. Jan .18 at St. Louis Park High School.