Wright City was unable to overcome an early deficit in their loss to Orchard Farm Monday night.
Wright City (4-20) fell to Orchard Farm (19-8) 67-35 in the first round of the Class 4, …
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Wright City was unable to overcome an early deficit in their loss to Orchard Farm Monday night.
Wright City (4-20) fell to Orchard Farm (19-8) 67-35 in the first round of the Class 4, District 7 tournament. The Wildcats gained an early 6-5 lead on three-pointers from Tim Sheff and Ricardo Uribe. Orchard Farm outscored Wright City 36-11 the rest of the first half and led 41-17 at halftime. Orchard Farm solved Wright City’s zone defense in the first half.
“We started off in zone,” Wright City boys basketball coach Ken Brown said. “Something we kind of built on from the last game playing Bowling Green. I knew they were tough to guard individually. All those guys are just very good guard-wise. They were tough for us to stay in front of.”
Orchard Farm found success on the offensive glass in the first half when Wright City deployed their zone defense. Brown said rebounding out of the zone is challenging since defenders do not have a specific person to box out like they do in the man-to-man defense.
“You’re just boxing out an area,” Brown said. “Most of the time when we run zone, we’re ball watchers. We don’t really watch the person that’s around them. We just watch the ball and when the shot goes up, we stare at the ball instead of boxing out.”
Brown thought the Wildcats’ effort was better in the second half. Orchard Farm outscored Wright City 26-18 in the second half.
Wright City senior Justin Jones and junior Carle’on Jones led Wright City with seven points apiece in the loss. Nine different Wildcat players scored in the loss.
Brown said he believes the Wildcats made strides throughout the season, especially down the stretch. He believes they will be in a good position next season, with many players set to return to the team.
“I saw a lot of strides down the stretch,” Brown said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys that will be coming back next year. I’m looking forward to that. We were one of the youngest teams in the conference this year with just only four seniors. Only two of them starting. So we’ll be able to get three or four starters returning with a very strong bench. I feel really confident about us next year. We’ve just got to get in the summer time and get better.”
