The St. Augustine Catholic School Kings and Queens senior basketball teams didn’t have the best showing against the strong Pigeon Lake Regional School Panthers last Monday, Feb. 2.
For the Kings, the biggest challenge was dealing with consistent pressure in the key. The Panthers had the strength and height to recover rebounds and they also sunk the majority of their shots earning a 48-23 victory.
Kings coach Adam Bowie said his team came out flat. “We were quiet and we didn’t have a lot of energy.”
At the end of the first half, the score was 29-10 for the Panthers. Bowie said he tried to put some energy into his players at the break to narrow the deficit.
“I said it was up to them to bring the intensity. You can’t teach intensity,” said Bowie.
He can tell when players aren’t communicating and it was evident in this game. Players would stop dribbling and attempt a pass before coming up to the key, which slowed down their offense and made their plays more predictable.
The start of the second half was a better performance, but the Kings struggled to make baskets even when they created scoring opportunities.
For the Queens, the first quarter was relatively evenly matched, but as the Panthers started to warm up, so did their offence and they eventually defeated the Queens 77-26. The Queens’ attempts at quick turnovers were foiled by the Panthers who always blocked with two players at the tip of the key.
This forced the Queens to stop and find a pass. It didn’t take long for the Panthers to almost completely halt the Queens offence. This continued through most of the game.
Coach Katherine Bergum-York said that while the Queens did struggle, their performance was much better than their first game against the Panthers. At that game they only scored two points while the Panthers had points in the 70s.
At half time she told her players she was proud of their efforts but urged them to get over their intimidation of the Panthers.
Despite the loss, Bergum-York feels her team has improved greatly.
The Kings and Queens remain winless in the league so far.