Senior Hawks learn early lesson

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Holy Cross Collegiate Hawks senior boys basketball team learned a valuable lesson in their season opening defeat to Strathcona-Tweedsmuir of Okotoks 72-42 on Dec. 3.
The Hawks started well, playing as a team, but could not sustain the same kind of consistency in the second half as players started to do too much themselves.
“When they played as a unit of five, they did quite well. We were down as much as 12 to 15 points, we came back to be within five and then we stopped playing that team game,” said coach Tony Hamilton.
The larger margin of defeat was a concern because the Hawks were not able to create enough on their inside game to put up points.
“The issue is when you have two elements to any offence, you’ve got your outside game and inside game, and we stopped using our inside game. We had success with it, but stopped using it out on the floor and when you do that, then you shut off a couple people on your team and it makes it more difficult to stay in a game,” said Hamilton.
“No two players will ever win a game, especially if the ball isn’t going in the basket when they’re shooting it. That’s what we talked about at practice, working like a machine that has five parts and when you’re working together and using all the parts, it goes much better.”
Hamilton added that this will be a learning curve for the team and hopes the results will be better when they go to Banff for a tournament over the weekend.