In its first game this season, the Wright City boys basketball team struggled to find its offensive identity.
That wasn’t the case in the Wildcats’ home opener on Wednesday, however, as the Wildcats looked much more confident in a 56-44 win over visiting Missouri Military Academy.
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In its first game this season, the Wright City boys basketball team struggled to find its offensive identity.
That wasn’t the case in the Wildcats’ home opener on Wednesday, however, as the Wildcats looked much more confident in a 56-44 win over visiting Missouri Military Academy.
Even though the Wildcats (1-1) nearly matched their offensive output from game one, when the team led 24-21 at halftime, Wright City coach Ken Brown said he knew he expected more.
“In the first half, we did a terrible job just recognizing what they were doing and looking for the open spots,” Brown said. “We tried dribbling through stuff and not relying on our teammates. In the second half, we made some adjustments. Just getting to it and understanding what we did. The second half was great.”
The game was close in the third quarter before back-to-back 3-pointers by junior TJ Hamel and senior Kaiden Pilcher grew the lead to 12 points with just a couple of minutes left, effectively putting the game away.
Hamel said he was excited to see his team outlast MMA with a group effort.
“The threes really brought us energy,” Hamel said. “I think that helped us step up on defense and that made a difference.”
Pilcher led 10 Wildcats in the scorebook with 14 points while junior Dylan Lenior added 10 points.
“This feels good,” Brown said. “I want to build on this and see if we can’t get win No. 2 on Tuesday.”
Lenior said that, unlike the season-opening defeat against Hermann, the win over MMA felt good because the guards played a pivotal role in getting the ball up the floor, knocking down shots and finding post players for points.
“It felt like I had to step up, move the ball around and find open teammates tonight,” Lenior said. “It felt good to be able to help us win.”
WRIGHT CITY GIRLS FALL AT DUCHESNE – Shiriah McRoberts led the way with eight points as Wright City dropped its season opener on the road, 58-19.
Ada Farrell added six points while Olivia Wilson contributed five.
The Wildcats will host South Callaway (1-0) on Friday at 5:30 p.m.
WARRENTON GIRLS SHINE IN DUAL – The Warrenton girls wrestling team defeated Hannibal 36-3 on senior night.
Dakota Lohrmann (135 pounds) and Ava Jenkins (145) earned wins in their matches.
WARRENTON BOYS FALL IN TRI-MEET – Korben Johnson and Kolten Tinker were the only boys wrestlers to win both of their matches as Warrenton fell to Helias and Hannibal Wednesday.
