CRESWELL – A young and inexperienced Creswell boys basketball team opened its season on campus against visiting Class 4A Marist Catholic on Friday night, struggling in the first half before rallying and pulling away to a 64-51 victory.
Jesse Thomas, coach of the Class 3A Bulldogs, said his team is finding its way and learning daily.
“From a varsity level experience standpoint, we don’t have much from last year,” Thomas said, noting five seniors graduated from last year’s’ team. “All of our guards are younger or less experienced and are sophomores who are now suddenly on full-time varsity. So I know there’s going to be some mistakes and some loss of batteries at times. That’s why we’re focused on letting them work through it and figure it out.”
This manifested in the game in the areas of rebounding and turnovers – a bit of a ying/yang for the Bulldogs. Creswell committed numerous turnovers in the first half of the game, and failed to convert free throws. However, through their athleticism and physicality, they were able to eliminate errors and dominate the boards in the second half.
CRAIG STROBECK / THE CHRONICLE PHOTO
“The rebounding, it killed us on the board for the first half,” Thomas said. “But we made up for it and rebounded much better in the second half, and got to the bucket late. Mason (Schartz’s) dunk kind of changed the whole momentum of the game because it was either a two- or a four-point game. When that happened, we just kind of slowly but surely, one stop at a time, got better offensive possessions.
“They’re figuring it out one game, one practice at a time, and trying to just get better,” he said.
Stats: Senior guard Tyler Whitson had 11 defensive rebounds with 16 points. Senior guard Darien Dewey had 12 points. Junior forward Luke Bailey had 4 defensive rebounds, 4 offensive rebounds and 10 points.
