Senior captain Stephanie Reuter said the girls’ basketball team struggled to maintain its composure during its Feb. 7 game against Chanhassen.

Park lost to the Chanhassen Storm 56-38, making its record 7-13.

Assistant coach Chris Bjorgaard said the team needs to work on staying calm in stressful situations.

“There’s a common theme with our group this year and it’s composure,” Bjorgaard said. “Staying composed when you get tired (and) when you get pressure being applied to you.”

At the half, the Orioles were down 29-19 after Chanhassen took an 8-0 lead to start the game.

Sophomore guard Lindsey Olson said she notices the team gets easily discouraged when it’s behind, allowing opponents easy layups.

“If we’re down and our shots aren’t falling, we get lazy and that gives the other team chances to increase their lead and then we have work harder to catch up,” Olson said. “(We need to) practice more with defense. Usually we do drills just going through the motions with no defense and I think we will see a change if we (change) that.”

Olson said the team must improve its communication on both offense and defense to prevent turnovers.

“(We need to work on) help side defense, not panicking on offense and playing together because what hurt us tonight was that they kept cutting and there was no help and we kept turning the ball over,” Olson said.

According to the Star Tribune girls’ basketball hub, the Orioles average 11.2 turnovers per game.

Bjorgaard said one of the team’s weaknesses is rebounding.

“We have a team that is largely composed of guards and they’re more comfortable probably playing a wing position than being down on the block and trying to be physical and doing those things,” Bjorgaard said. “So collectively we have to rebound in a group and not rely on one or two individuals to do it.”

According to the Star Tribune girls’ basketball hub, the team averages 23.2 rebounds per game.

Although the team continues to improve its weaknesses, Bjorgaard said it can be hard to replicate game pressure in practice.

“We try to simulate some of (the game-time pressure) with drills. So we will simulate boxing out and stuff for rebounding and we shoot a lot of free throws, but at the same time it’s not the same as we are in a game (and) it’s hard to simulate other teams being physical,” Bjorgaard said.

Reuter said the team will work hard in practice to improve its game.

“To improve for next game we will watch film and scrimmage. We will bounce back from this loss by practicing harder and working on our weaknesses,” Reuter said.
The Orioles’ next game takes place at 7 p.m. Feb. 10 at Park against Chaska.