Boys’ basketball loses to buzzer-beater
Bloomington Jefferson wins 39-37
Junior Cameron Delorme drives towards the hoop for an and-one layup in the game Feb. 11. Park lost to Jefferson 39-37.
February 12, 2021
With a second left on the clock in double overtime, Bloomington Jefferson scored a tie-breaking basket which was disappointing, according to junior Cameron Delorme.
“We were all disappointed,” Delorme said. “As a team, we are frustrated because it is embarrassing. It doesn’t feel good. We are all upset, mad and mad at ourselves because of those little things.”
Junior Ayub Mohamed said the team had a negative mindset going into the game from the previous losses and needed to change that in order to turn the game around.
“We were just missing the little things. If you want to take that step forward and start winning games, we have to do the little things,” Mohamed said. “They definitely didn’t beat us, we just beat ourselves.”
While the team struggled offensively, head coach David Breitenbucher said the defensive work the team put in during practice paid off during the game.
“Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday we talked about being better on the defensive end and for sure we were better,” Breitenbucher said. “We held Bloomington Jefferson to 39 points and that is not a bad defensive effort especially when you are talking about two overtimes,” Breitenbucher said.
Delorme said it is a mix of little issues and a negative mindset among players that contributes to the continuous losses.
“We need the drive to win and I feel like there are some guys that want it more than people and there are some people that don’t care as much,” Delorme said. “We missed some little things like box-outs and we need to communicate more on defense so if we can clean up those things then hopefully we can turn it around.”
Since this was a low-scoring game, Mohamed said if small changes had been made, the team would have won.
“We were not hitting shots but our defense is there and the other team wasn’t hitting shots either,” Mohamed. “We just got to take that step forward. We should have won that game by a lot more than we lost by.”
From the beginning of the season, the team has worked on snapping the ball, Breitenbucher said. It is the fundament things that need to improve for the gameplay to change.
“We are tight with the ball and are trying to get good habits of snapping the basketball in a tight crisp pass. Right now, we are coming down on offensive and we floated a little bit and it’s a turnover,” Breitenbucher said. “Unless we start doing the little things right, the big things aren’t going to happen.”
Boys’ basketball will play its next game against Benilde-St. Margaret’s 4 p.m. Feb. 13 at Benilde-St. Margaret’s.
