Spartans JV boys showing improvements

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

After more than a three-year absence from playing in the junior varsity level, the Strathmore Spartans boys basketball team are back on the court and despite a recent loss are showing vast improvements. Already three games into the season, a 69-40 loss against Holy Trinity on Jan. 7 didn’t affect the team’s dedication, and they continue to steadily improve, officials say.
“We played really strong defense,” said Coach Travis Gorski, who filled in for the head coach. “The kids are really taking their coaching well and we actually scored double as many points as two nights ago. There’s definitely a hard work ethic with these guys every week. Some of the comments from the kids, even though we lost, they felt that they played a terrific game.”
Gorski said the boys were able to hang around with Holy Trinity most of the game but weren’t able to press, and that’s where the opposition was able to open up a 16-point lead.
“They were pressing us and we tried to beat it with our dribble,” said Gorski.
“But then they would double team us. We were having troubles breaking press and get our passes going.”
Despite losing the game, there were positive outcomes to take from it. Gorski was pleased with the effort of the boys getting the ball down into the paint where they saw most of their success in the game.
Isaac Wegner, who is in first year of basketball but is an avid football player, is still learning the rules of the game and finds himself fouling out of a lot of games. He thought this was the best overall performance the team put on.
“We really let go in the third quarter but we really brought it back up in the fourth quarter which is good,” he said. “We played really well in the first two quarters and kept up with them. We played them before in tournament quite badly. At half time we made quite a few adjustments and came out with a strong press in the third quarter.”