As the Warsaw Tournament came to a close, Skyline took first place on Saturday, Dec. 5, after taking a win against Butler. The Warsaw team, seeded seventh, just missed placing after losses to Skyline on Tuesday, Dec. 1, with a score of 76-55, and Eldon on Thursday, Dec. 3, with a score of 66-72.

  The team attributed their loss to Eldon to senior shooting guard Levi Shinn, who was number 10 for the Mustangs. Shinn scored 23 out of their 72 points.

  The team saw challenges in each game during the Warsaw Tournament that they will further continue to work on during practice. The team agreed that boxing out, ball handling, rebounding, and gaining more experience are all things that need to be focused on.

  “Challenges seen each game were going up against teams that were more experienced than us,” senior forward Kyle Nevius said.

  “I saw a challenge in overcoming adversity,” junior power forward Wesley Carr said.

  “We weren’t rebounding good enough,” freshman post Tyler Kirk said.

  “Every team we played in the tournament was much more experienced than us, so we had to play smart, and give 100 percent effort each game,” sophomore guard David Derks said.

  Head coach Jason Ollison and assistant coach Derald Henderson were happy with how the team played, but have also noticed things the team needs to work on, despite the newfound varsity experience.

  “Effort was really good. Effort is the main thing. We also made adjustments, which is a good sign,” Ollison said. “We need to do better handling and defense could improve. We threw the ball to the other team too much.”

  “I was happy with how they played. They played hard, hustled, and put in a lot of effort and energy,” Henderson said. “We need to work on decision making, and taking care of the ball.”

  The team and coaches evaluated the mistakes that were made while the tournament was still in play, and described what they would be taking out of the tournament.

  “We’re going to further improve on running the floor and rebounding,“ Nevius said.

 “We have some people that are improving. We have a lot of room for improvement. We are on our way,” Carr said. “Watch out.”

  “We can further improve on rebounding and boxing out, and we will,” Kirk said.

  “It doesn’t matter how much you’re down at half, if you put 100 percent effort into the game, you can win,” Derks said,

 Henderson said players gained varsity experience from the tournament.  

 “Only one had played significant varsity minutes. Most have just gotten their first minutes and their first competitive situations,” Henderson said.

  “We have a lot of things we know to work on, like working on more varsity experience,” Ollison said.