After winning a close game against a 12-3 Benton High School, the Huskies attempted to make a statement against an aggressive Junction City team. Head Coach Aaron Ihm said the Huskies knew getting a win wouldn’t be easy and emphasized our defense has been the backbone of these close games.
“We’re playing really good defense that keeps us in every game, even against some of the best teams in different states,” Ihm said.
Despite several new additions to the team, the Huskies have maintained a 9-3 record.
Ihm said the team’s success has been unexpected given its youth and inexperience.
“If you had asked me (before the season if we’d) be 9-3 at this point, I would probably have told you, there’s no way– we’re just young,” Ihm said.
Throughout the first half, the Huskies and Blue Jays traded leads, but the Huskies pulled ahead and led the Blue Jays 26-20 going into halftime. Ihm noted in each of the Huskies’ three losses this season, they led at the half.
“All of (the losses), we’ve played pretty good defense. What was going well was when we just played hard, pushed the ball and trusted each other,” Ihm said. “We would probably maintain a five to seven-point lead most of the time.”
The Huskies maintained their lead (43-39) into the beginning of the 4th quarter, but suddenly disaster struck for the Huskies when the Blue Jays mounted a comeback. According to Ihm, the Huskies’ missed opportunities earlier in the game started to weigh on them.
“All of those hidden points in a game come back to haunt you in close games,” Ihm said.
With the game coming to a close, the Huskies were struggling to respond to the Blue Jays’ comeback. Junior Ayden McGibboney said the Huskies began taking bad shots and turned the ball over.
“We got sped up–too many turnovers,” McGibboney said.
In the final minutes, the Blue Jays outscored the Huskies, ultimately, falling 56-51. According to Ihm, the Huskies’ lack of experience caught up with them.
“We only have two guys on our roster (Seniors Trevor Garlington and Keaton Humphrey) that have been through that before. Everyone else is doing it for the first time in new roles,” Ihm said.
As far as moving forward from this loss, the Huskies will analyze their mistakes and work on improving them in practice.
“That is a game [we] should have won. And now we’re going back and dissecting all of the things that we could have done better,” Ihm said. “We’re going to put those into practice and hopefully that helps us.”
With eight games left in the season, the Huskies’ next three games will be their toughest competition yet. According to Ihm, the challenging schedule is intentional.
“It’s also the best way to prepare them to try to do what they want,” Ihm said. “Their goals were to win conference and have an opportunity to win substate. We’ve got to go through this to be able to do that.”
The Huskies’ next game is at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1, against 12-5 Lee’s Summit North.
