Sailors drop opener in Wyoming
High school boys basketball team falls to 3-3 in young season
The parts are there; they’re just not coming together.
For the third time in four games, the Steamboat Springs High School boys basketball team played well in stretches but couldn’t overcome its lapses. The Sailors lost Thursday on the opening day of the Flaming Gorge Classic Basketball tournament, falling to Riverton, Wyo., 42-38.
“Basically it was letdowns in our intensity,” Steamboat coach Luke DeWolfe said. “Our basic game plan was fine. We just weren’t playing that hard. When that happens, it’s tough. Even teams that aren’t that high of a caliber will beat you when you don’t play defense.”
Steamboat (3-3 overall) led, 14-10, after one quarter and went into halftime tied at 28 before struggling to find consistency on either end of the floor in the second half.
The Sailors managed to score just 1 point in the third quarter and 10 points in the second half.
“In the third quarter I pulled out all our starters and put in the second team for six minutes,” DeWolfe said. “It’s just because we weren’t doing what we needed to be doing.”
The game was tight all the way down to the final minutes in the fourth quarter, but the Sailors struggled from the free throw line and gave up too many easy baskets.
Jack Spady led Steamboat with 10 points. Alex and Charles Wood each scored 8 points, and Nelson Brassell chipped in 6.
“We did have some guys do some nice things throughout,” DeWolfe said. “We just have to play a full game and execute. We can’t have lapses. We play good for periods of time, then we have those lapses. We still had a chance to win it going down the stretch, but we didn’t execute.”
Steamboat plays Evanston, Wyo., at 11:45 a.m. today. DeWolfe said Evanston is traditionally a very physical team, and Steamboat will have to play a full four quarters to have a shot at winning.
“It’s playing for a solid 32 minutes,” DeWolfe said. “For us it’s still about coming together as a team. We’re still trying to find ourselves a little bit. We need to come together as a team and continue to work on things.”
– To reach Luke Graham, call 871-4229
or e-mail lgraham@steamboatpilot.com
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