Varsity Boys Basketball defeated Overfelt High School 69-42 on Tuesday, Dec. 2. The Matadors established an early 19-12 lead at the end of the first quarter, capitalizing on early turnovers by OHS and expanding their advantage to a 20-point lead by halftime. MVHS maintained the large lead throughout the second half to claim the dominant win.
Head Coach Wade Nakamura believes that the team has improved since previous games, especially in terms of defense. While there is still room for improvement, he believes that the work done during practice translated into more pressure on OHS, leading to turnovers and fast break opportunities.
“We’ve had two games where we have not played as well as I thought we could have played,” Nakamura said. “The last couple practices, we were able to focus on some things, and then today try and put those things into live action.”
Despite the improvement, junior and center Edward Fan still believes that their defense was unreliable, as the Matadors “played down to the other team.” Junior and point guard William Liu agrees, stating that defense is a continuing area of improvement.
“I think we can improve on our defense and hustle, because we aren’t running hard,” Liu said. “Our rebounding also needs to improve and so does our trapping, because we let them through a bunch of traps.”
While Fan believes MVHS played well towards the second half, he believes that the team can start out stronger. Fan says that this can be done by bringing more energy from the start of games.
“The more we play, the more energy we build up over the game,” Fan said. “But we always start off slow and end well. I feel like we need to get energy in the beginning of the game.”
Overall, Nakamura believes that the team is in a good position for CCS if they iron out their mistakes early on in the season. He appreciates this game as an opportunity for weaker players to get meaningful experience on the court.
“I love the fact that everyone got a chance to play and contribute today, because that wasn’t the case the first two games,” Nakamura said. “Games were closer and the pressure was a little bit more, so the rotation was shorter. Tonight, with a big lead, we were able to play everyone.”
