The junior varsity (JV) Broncs basketball team looked like a strong contender to beat the Sylvan Lake Lakers Monday, Jan. 19 but trouble in the second half brought a tough to swallow loss.
The Broncs lost 65-42, partly due to ineffective team communication.
The first half of the game went well for the Broncs, who finished ahead 22-21. Players had no trouble passing in the key to distract the Lakers’ defense. That confusion and sinking baskets helped them stay ahead for most of the first half.
Everything changed in the second half.
Wave after wave of Lakers’ offense proved too much for the Broncs, who seemed to have lost all the chemistry they had in the first half. Their biggest issue was team disunity.
Disarray in the team was evident on the court with failed passes and offensive plays. The Lakers anticipated almost every move and took advantage of the Broncs’ mistakes.
Coach Ryan Newman said communication issues and a couple of bad passes in the first half of the game helped create a negative cycle and the team lost traction. “They had a few guys bickering with each other and it just started from there.”
The Lakers took advantage of the confused hosts and forced consecutive turnovers that hurt the Broncs’ chances of a win. With 3:29 left in the third quarter, Newman called a time out for his team who were now behind 25-39.
“I basically tried to get them calmed down and tried to get them thinking quarter by quarter,” said Newman.
He said the JV Broncs’ biggest challenge is getting over mistakes made on the court. Team captains Blake Waldron and Garrick Hindley tried to rally the boys and at times it worked, the Broncs scored another 17 points, but it was not enough to narrow the gap.
Newman’s focus in the next few weeks is going to be on working as a team. “Talk about individual team versus a ‘team’ team.”