The Blackhawks offense starts pushing the ball down the court after a miss.
Drew Terhall | The Daily Advocate
The Blackhawks defense communicates and gets on their guy.
Drew Terhall | The Daily Advocate
By Drew Terhall
DailyAdvocate.com
UNION CITY — The Mississinawa Valley boys’ basketball team had their last scrimmage of the offseason against Riverside High School on Nov. 17 at home.
Both the junior varsity and the varsity squads had one final chance to practice against a different opponent before the regular season kicks off.
Head coach Nick Hamilton said the team did very well in the scrimmage. There was some highs and some lows, but the team gave it all they had and took to their coaching.
“I thought the kids played extremely hard. I thought they played very well, they are doing what we’re asking them to do,” Hamilton said.
The varsity team played less players than they normally would have during the scrimmage. Hamilton said they are dealing with some injuries.
But the team kept their energy up during the whole scrimmage. Hamilton said he liked what he saw from his defense most of the time and liked how the offense got down the court quickly during the scrimmage.
Hamilton let his five seniors get a bulk of the reps to get prepared for the upcoming season. Troy Woodbury, Jacob Loy, Drew Anguiano, Connor Shimp and Matt Pisano all looked in sync and communicated well on the floor.
There are still somethings the team needs to work on. Hamilton said the team is getting better at rebounding, but they still need to work on that aspect of the game.
“We need to keep crashing the boards. We need to continue to get mental tougher. It’s a process with the kids. We’re getting there with them,” Hamilton said.
Mississinawa Valley will have some time before their season opener against Franklin Monroe on Dec. 2 to improve on some of those things. Their original season opener against Ansonia on Nov. 26 was pushed back as the Tigers are starting late with their team due to the football players joining the basketball team late due to their postseason run.
Hamilton said the kids are a little disappointed to have to wait for their rivalry game, but understand Ansonia’s situation. Their focus is on building up from their performance during the scrimmage and continue to improve each day.
“We’re still going to go at it. These kids are giving us everything they have every night in practice. They’re working their tails off and we’re getting better every practice,” Hamilton said.
Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]
