After falling to Minot High 90-80 on Saturday, the Midgets hoped to be able to rebound with a victory over Bismarck Legacy on Tuesday. Sadly, the team had to face a different reality with a 68-50 loss to the Sabers.
The Midgets (1-2) attempted to keep itself in the game, but struggled from the field against the Sabers (1-2). As a team, the Midgets were only able to connect on 19% of its shots from the field, compared to the Sabers' nearly 42%.
"The ball just didn’t go in the hoop, it was a tough night shooting and it’s just one of those games where we’re going to gain experience," Head Coach Dan Glasser said. "These kids are just … very inexperienced and every second that they have on the court it’s going to help us in the long run and that’s how what we’re looking at right now."
Midgets' Jayden Hocker and Kyle Brilz led the way for the Midgets throughout the night. Hocker recorded 12 points, one assist and one steal. Brilz recorded 14 points, two rebounds and an assist.
"Jayden Hocker and Kyle Brilz are the backbone of this team," Glasser said. "Kyle and Jayden are going to continue to lead us and they have the most experience right now moving forward, they have been outstanding leaders. They’ve had some bad shooting nights and things haven’t gone their ways but they’ve been great captains and leaders for our team. They’re the reason that we’re learning so much and moving so well forward right now."
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Despite the rough loss, Glasser believes he is learning just as much about this team as the players are in how to play the game of basketball.
"To be honest … i’ve never learned more about a team that I’ve coached in three games than I have about this team," he said.
The Midgets will now be going into the break with a 1-2 record and will not play again until Jan. 2. However, Glasser believes there are some strong positives to take away from this start of the season.
"I see good things from everyone and that’s what’s making it really exciting for me as the coach, it’s not just one individual that has really surprised me," he said. "It’s about six or seven that have surprised me. And I’m excited to get to practice over Christmas break and being able to five, six practices with these guys and it’s almost like a whole new preseason and then we can come back and just continue to grow.
"The biggest takeaway I see from this team is that we just got to get back to the basics and really focus on that. As a coach i’ve tried to do a couple new things for our system and honestly I think it was a mistake," he added. "We’re going to come back, do what we need to do in order to get better and go from there."
