If the Wright City boys basketball team can get the same intensity out of its offense that the defense provides, some success may be on the horizon.
While the team went 1-2 to finish the Clopton …
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If the Wright City boys basketball team can get the same intensity out of its offense that the defense provides, some success may be on the horizon.
While the team went 1-2 to finish the Clopton Tournament after falling to the St. Louis Blue Knights 35-23 on Saturday, coach Ken Brown said the team’s offensive effort needs to catch up to the level the defense is playing at.
“Defensively, we’ve played great,” said Brown after the loss to the Blue Knights. “We just couldn’t get anything going on offense. I think that comes with us working together more.”
The Wildcats (3-7) are allowing around 50 points per game while scoring 41.
The coach said the team needs to work hard to find the hot hand each time it plays and not let the offense stagnate.
He pointed to sophomore Kaveon Schulte’s 20 points in the second round at Clopton when Wright City beat Mark Twain 58-50.
“I think it’s about trying to figure out who has the hot hand,” Brown said. “Kaveon had a good game. Today, it was hit-or-miss. The shots weren’t falling and we have got to realize when they aren’t falling, we’ve got to get the ball inside to the rim to our post players.”
Junior TJ Hamel echoed his coach’s words in the wake of the loss to the Blue Knights, in which junior guard Dylan Lenoir led the way with nine points, but no other Wright City player had more than four.
“We played a very good defensive game, we just couldn’t put the ball into the basket,” Hamel said. “We couldn’t finish around the rim.”
Lenoir said that, in a word, the team’s woes sometimes come down to effort. He would like to see this effort change as the season progresses.
“We’re just lacking sometimes,” Lenoir said. “We have to do what we can to work harder.”
Brown added that the coming days will be very important for the Wildcats to pick up the effort as a unit.
In a run that started Tuesday against Louisiana, Wright City will face several Eastern Missouri Conference opponents in the coming weeks.
“We’ve got nine conference games coming up and we’re still looking for our first win,” Brown said. “I feel confident about us going forward. We’ve just got to get back to the drawing board. We’ve just got to keep working.”
