The boys’ basketball team continued their vastly successful season on Wednesday, March 7, emerging victorious in the postseason sectionals matchup against Willard High School.
Coming off of a fiery victory against Blue Springs South in the district championship game, the Bruins felt confident in their abilities as a team going into play. Before the game, RBHS held a nine-game winning streak, with their only loss to Hogan Prep on Jan. 26, losing 57-66.
“We felt good going in, and we wanted to make sure we played a really clean game,” senior forward Drew Boswell, who scored eight points for the Bruins, said.
RBHS led the game from tipoff, scoring in bunches while defending Willard to 22 points in the first half. While head coach Jim Scanlon was happy with the win, he wasn’t satisfied with the team’s performance. The Bruins, usually a high-scoring team, faced an long, ill-timed shooting slump throughout the game.
“It wasn’t one of our better games. We didn’t shoot the ball very well, which we have been doing. We’ve been hitting free throws all year long, but we didn’t do that very well,” Scanlon said. “It was kind of strange; we won the game, our defense was pretty solid, but we just really didn’t get into a flow. We had some opportunities, but we just didn’t shoot the ball offensively like we usually do. We were just fortunate enough to win it without having a good offensive night.”
Although they still struggled to score well, the Bruins managed to improve their performance in the second half. Junior guard Ja’Monta Black believes the team will need to take this game as a tool to perform better for the next game.
“I think the first half they put up a good fight, but second half we kind of just took over,” Black said. “As a team we need to improve on doing the little things better. Such as taking charges, rebounding and talking more. We’re a pretty good defensive team but could be a lot better.”
The Bruins won (66-47) at the final buzzer, and will be moving on to the state quarterfinal game against Parkview in Bolivar on Saturday, March 10. While Scanlon isn’t too worried about the Bruins’ off-game, he looks forward to the team working their way back to old form before the next matchup.
“These games come; you just don’t know when they’re going to come. We shoot every day, but we didn’t shoot very well last night. It comes and goes, which is why defensive rebounding better be good, because that’s something you can always be in control of,” Scanlon said. “We’ll go back to practice, do our normal routine, talk about some things we didn’t do very well and hope by Saturday we’re on target and everything’s looking good.”
Do you think the team will continue their win streak? Let us know in the comments below.