Park boys basketball went up against their crosstown rival Benilde St. Margaret’s on Jan. 19 in a one-way game. Park played catch up the whole game, eventually resulting in a loss 66-88 for the Orioles.
Assistant coach Chris Nordstrom said the team needs to play better defensively.
“Defense is our biggest thing. We gave 51 points in the first half, which is just too much and we just weren’t following through on our game plan,” Nordstrom said. “I think a big thing we noticed was that effort wasn’t there during the first half of the game.”
Junior Micah Curtis said the team started off with lower energy compared to usual, and with that the game could have been different.
“We started off slow with low energy. We just need to start off with a bunch of energy,” Curtis said. “It gets us into a hole that we had to climb back out of, I just think if we don’t get so many buckets on us at the beginning, it’s easier to compete throughout the game.”
Junior Marley Curtis said the team’s chemistry hasn’t been on point this season, but it will get better.
“Although we lost by a significant amount, we didn’t let it get too out of hand like we did last year,” Curtis said. “I don’t think our chemistry is as good as it could be, considering we got a lot of transfers and a lot of people who didn’t grow up playing together, but it’ll get better and better as the season goes on.”
Nordstrom said the team didn’t do badly in the second half and will have to work hard at practice.
“In the second half, we definitely kind of buckled down and focused on defense and getting stops which helped create offense and gave us some momentum and gave us a chance,” Nordstrom said. “We got to be prepared for communication, talking through screens and just playing our style of defense to help us create havoc against them.”
Curtis said the team is going to prepare to bounce back against New Prague.
“We are gonna work harder and have a bigger motor and just prepare more, just be ready to go right when the game starts,” Curtis said. “We’re just gonna stay disciplined, and just keep working on our shooting and good energy.
Curtis said the team needs to increase their presence on the court for them to compete at a high level.
“I think we can work on not folding under pressure to teams that are high level people and have strong form,” Curtis said. “We’re going to be more intense. We’re going to work harder so that we can compete with the good teams.”
Park boys basketball plays New Prague at 7 p.m. Jan. 23 at New Prague High School.
