Boys struggle in first quarter, bounce back and show improvement
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
The first quarter of the new season didn’t turn out quite like the Big Foot boys basketball team hoped last week.
But the last three were an improvement, which gave the Chiefs a bit of hope moving forward.
Visiting Shorewood raced out to a 22-7 first-quarter lead and cruised to a 77-56 non-conference victory. The loss dropped Big Foot to 0-1 overall heading into a home contest Thursday night against Parkview.
Results of that matchup were unavailable this week.
Big Foot committed 36 turnovers against Shorewood, as the Chiefs never could answer the Greyhounds’ pressure defense.
“We could not handle the ball and struggled against their pressure,” Big Foot coach Mike Dowden said. “We either were really tentative or really fast and couldn’t find the pace we needed to break their pressure.
“We had too many passes right to them for uncontested layups. That won’t win you any games.”
After the slow start that saw Shorewood build its lead to as many as 17 points, the Chiefs put together three solid quarters of basketball.
The Greyhounds outscored the Chiefs 55-49 the rest of the way, which was a positive, Dowden said.
“I thought we played really hard all night and played very (well) on defense for part of the night,” he said. “The issue is playing good defense for part of a game doesn’t get wins.”
Alex Landers led the Chiefs with 17 points and six steals, followed by Beau Cary with 14 points and 10 rebounds and Nico Tovar with six points, 10 rebounds and three blocks.
Michael Heidenreich added six rebounds and two steals, while Mark Schauf had two steals.
Cary, a 6-foot-5 sophomore, made an impression in his first varsity start, Dowden said.
“Beau had a nice game for his first varsity start,” he said. “We expect him to improve on a nightly basis and for him to help us in a big way as the season progresses.
“I think we will be better when both he and Nico play within themselves and find their roles on the team.”
Dowden said he’s looking forward to seeing his team bounce back this week, first with the Parkview matchup Thursday, followed by a non-conference contest Saturday at Elkhorn.
Tipoff Saturday is 4:30 p.m.
“(Our goals this week are) two wins and continuing to grow with our defense and offensive execution,” Dowden said. “We must be better at playing our tempo, and there is no better time than this week.
“You can’t win conference in the first week of the season, but winning sure beats losing.”
Dowden added that he doesn’t want his team to panic in the face of one lopsided defeat.
The basketball season is a marathon and not a sprint.
“We need to remember that it was one game, and that we had a lot of new faces on varsity,” Dowden said. “There were quite a bit of times when we looked tentative and unsure, and that comes with confidence.
“In addition, we aren’t good enough to not play our best each night. It might not be the same guys each night, but we need to find a collective way for our best lineups to play well on each night.”
