Park boys basketball began their conference play with a trip to Washburn Jan. 20. After going into halftime with a 13-point lead, Park struggled to keep the same energy in the second half. Ultimately, Park fell short 80-75, making their record 5-4 so far in the season.
Assistant coach Chris Nordstrom said the team started well with good defensive play. He said after halftime, the team let the control they had fall out of reach.
“We played pretty well in the first half, mostly because of our defense, we were pretty locked and that’s what we talked about at halftime, we had to keep that defensive intensity up,” Nordstrom said. “That’s what slipped in the second half and allowed Washburn to get back in the game.”
Senior captain Noah Margolis said the team came out strong. He said after halftime, the team lost their energy because of simple mistakes.
“We played very confidently in the first half and all believed in ourselves. After halftime, though, we lost our confidence because of turnovers and missed shots,” Margolis said.
Junior Jonah Schwab said Park executed organized plays and got open often. He said Park struggled to contain Washburn defensively.
“We did a good job on getting in our sets and running plays. We had many open looks when we ran them correctly and were able to score,” Schwab said. “However, we got very sloppy at defensive rebounding and allowed Washburn to get too many second-chance points.”
According to Nordstrom, Park struggled to problem-solve throughout the game. He said the team could have had better teamwork after halftime.
“I don’t think we handled the adversity great in the second half. We could have continued to focus on defense and lock and play together,” Nordstrom said. “We just got out of sorts in the second half.”
According to Schwab, there was a lot to be learned from this loss. He said while expectations are high, games need to be treated with a lot more urgency regardless of the opponent.
“The loss taught us a lot of things,” Schwab said. “It taught us that we aren’t there yet and that if we underestimate teams that we think are better, then we won’t get the results we want. It taught us (that) we’re not untouchable and we need to treat each game like it’s the state championship”
According to Margolis, the team was able to support each other with how the team reacted when a player got injured. He said the team put their differences aside to focus on the health of their teammate.
“A moment that stood out to me was when one of our players fell in the second half. Even though we were mad at each other for not playing good, we still all went to help him up,” Margolis said. “It shows that no matter what happens, we still need to be a team and help everyone on the team out.”
Nordstrom said the game film will allow the team to collaborate and discuss what went wrong. He said there was no specific moment but rather a group of plays the team needed to fix.
“When we watch film, there’s going to be a lot of things to digest, a lot of pieces in the second half that we’ll be able to look at and talk about,” Nordstrom said. “I don’t think there is just one moment (the team could learn from).”
Margolis said Park has a lot to learn from the loss. He said the team needs to stay more connected and will look to do so in the next game.
“This loss taught us many things. It shows us that we fall apart very easily when things aren’t going our way and we need to always remember to stay connected even when things aren’t going our way,” Margolis said. “Our mindset for our next game is just to go out and play as a team, not try and shoot ourselves out of the game, which normally never works.”
Schwab said it’s important that the team review the mistakes from the game to better prepare for upcoming games. He said the loss will motivate them when they play Edina next.
“We are going to rally from this loss by going over film and fixing any mistakes we had, using this (loss) as motivation to get better so when we play Edina on Tuesday, we will be ready,” Schwab said.
Park boys basketball’s next game is against Edina at 7 p.m. Jan. 7 at the Edina Community Center.
