The varsity boys basketball team beat the Washington Eagles 91-52 at home last Saturday, Dec. 13, and continue to be unbeaten.
The Trojans played great as a team, senior forward Rayan Rowther said.
“We played hard, and we were just better overall than the other team,” Rowther said.
The other team switched defenses throughout the game and that was a difficult adjustment, Rowther said.
“We had to adapt and change our game plan,” he said.
Rowther had to be more aggressive defensively, he said.
“I had to pass the ball more because they were collapsing whenever the ball got inside,” Rowther said.
Communication while playing is really important, Rowther said.
“If we didn’t communicate, we probably wouldn’t have won,” he added.
The team did an excellent job of playing defense, Rowther said.
“We weren’t letting them play their game the way they wanted to,” Rowther said.
The mindset heading into this game was to win, senior shooting guard Dylan Nguyen said.
“To win the game by any means necessary was our mindset,” Nguyen said.
The main focus when adjusting to the opponent’s defensive pressure was to take care of the ball, Nguyen said.
“(We had to) make the right passes, and not get overwhelmed by their pressure,” Nguyen said.
Scoring is the main thing Nguyen focuses on, he said.
“Personally, I got a good amount of assists today,” Nguyen said. “(We) played team ball. The team scored like 91 points, I think that’s the highest score of the whole team.”
Defense is important for every game, Nguyen said.
“That is our team strength,” he said.
The team has a lot of chemistry together, Nguyen added.
“We talk a lot, when we’re on defense,” Nguyen said.“Everyone’s communicating,” he added.
Head coach Champ Wrencher was happy with the team’s defensive effort e, he said.
“I didn’t know this group would be this good at defense,” Wrencher said. “We’ve been seeing this so far in all the games we played where at some point our defense can take control. And it’s a surprise. I did not know that we could play defense this good.”
The turning point of the game was when the Trojans were able to get some stops and rebounds and get off on some fast breaks, Wrencher said.
“So at some point, probably in the second quarter, we were able to get some fast break baskets from our defense and that wore the other team down,” Wrencher said.
Wrencher didn’t make a lot of adjustments and liked the way the game’s pace was going, he said.
“I didn’t see them making a lot of subs,so if we keep some fresh bodies there, maybe get to playing like 9 or 10 people by halftime, we could see them falling off a little bit and I think that was our overall strategy,” Wrencher said. “So no adjustments to be made, just making sure we just continue to wear them down.”
The shooting was great this game, Wrencher said.
“This is the first game where we made a lot of three-pointers, and we’ve been waiting for this,” he said. “But other than that, the fast breaks that we have is great team chemistry. They just know how to play together, but it is hard to explain. You can never teach it.”
Since the previous game, the team’s conditioning has improved greatly, Wrencher said.
“We’re in better shape,” Wrencher said. “We’re not grabbing our shorts and we’re not huffing and puffing, and we’re able to play at a high level throughout. We got good to a high level, and we stayed at it.”
Wrencher noticed some things in the game he would like to see the team improve, he said.
“We got to be a little bit better on the ball and guarding one on one players, so that’s something we will work on (next practice), but it will be difficult. There won’t be a quicker team that we’ll play all season than what we saw today. But we can do a better job of keeping people in front of us, maybe backing up a little bit, so that’s definitely what we’ll work on.”
