Park girls basketball faced Shakopee on Jan. 24 in their latest matchup. Park played strong in the first half, but eventually lost some energy in the second, ultimately losing 65-53.
Junior Jamaria Brown-Watson said they started good but couldn’t keep it up with the small roster that they have.
“We started off pretty strong,” Brown-Watson said. “Just the lack of having players on our team left us tired and made the game much harder.”
Coach Ron Howard said the team played stronger and they are becoming a better team every week, even though the game didn’t go their way.
“Tonight we played with a lot more energy and a lot more effort,” Howard said. “(The chips)didn’t fall the way that we wanted to, but I think that we’re improving. We’re getting to be a better team now and we’re improving a lot week by week.”
Senior Evie Schmitz said they played strong at the start but lost the energy when Shakopee started gaining momentum.
“The first half went really well,” Schmitz said. “Then we just lost energy in the second half when they hit a couple threes on us.”
Brown-Watson said they need to work on rebounding and attacking the basketball in practice in order to improve their gameplay.
“Going into practice and making sure to get better at stuff we’re not doing well in the game (is important),” Brown-Watson said. “Things like rebounding drills and just attacking the basketball because when we go to attack the basket, we actually get rebounds (and) that will get us points.”
Howard said improving takes time, and they need to keep trusting in the work that they’re putting in.
“I just want us to continue to trust the process,” Howard said. “We know that our team and our season wasn’t built in a day. Just like they say: Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Park girls basketball plays Chanhasen at 7 p.m. Jan. 26 at Chanhassen High School.
