After losing to Burnsville in the first game of the season, coach David Breitenbucher said he attributes the loss to lack of preparedness.

“It was pretty hard to prepare for the game because it was Burnsville’s first game as well so there was no scouting,” Breitenbucher said. “I usually go scout every game we play, so this game we kind of went in blind, without having a thorough report on Burnsville.”

According to team manager Demareon Caston, even though the team started off slow, they kept playing hard until the buzzer.

“(At) the start of the game we were doing a little bad,” Caston said. “We kept on working though, we kept on pushing ourselves to get that scoreboard up until the end.”

Junior Paris Johnson said he thinks the team played well, but needs to improve in the future. 

“We played alright,” Johnson said. “We just have to get better from here on.”

Breitenbucher said the team performed well considering their minimal amount of practices, but it also has a lot to revise.

“The game was more about us and less about Burnsville, we have a ton of stuff to improve on,” Breitenbucher said. “I mean we only had two weeks of practice and it’s kind of what you expect this early.”

Caston said it is up to the team to get better, which will ultimately decide the outcome of the season.

“It’s all up to them to improve,” Caston said. “If they feel like they need to improve they will, but if they don’t then it’s gonna be a tough season for them.”

Johnson reflected on what the team has to correct in order to be more successful.

“We need to improve on boxing out and playing more aggressive,” Johnson said. ”In practice we (have to) focus on conditioning and boxing out, also one on one and fast break type drills.”

According to Breitenbucher, he is happy with the teams’ performance and believes that it will get better as the season progresses.

“Things will improve. I’m proud of our guys because we played hard. It was sloppy, but we played hard,” Breitenbucher said. “The bottom line is we (have to) keep working hard and keep our heads up and focus on getting better, it’s a long process and we just (have to) get better.”

Park boys’ basketball will play its next game 7 p.m. Dec. 5 at Parkcenter High School against Parkcenter.