There’s still plenty of promise and potential but the inexperience and lack of weaponry against stacked opponents continue to leave North Sunflower Academy Rebels on the wrong side of the scoreboard. This past week both the boys' and girls' JV and Varsity teams lost on the road to Delta Academy last Thursday, lost to Regents at home on Friday and then were on the losing end of their matchups in Arkansas on Tuesday night against DeSoto.
Boys head coach Essie Thomas noted the bright spot of the week for the JV team was the matchup with DeSoto on Tuesday. The team fell 37-35 but had fought back after a tough first half.
“Starting out in the first half we had 11 turnovers. A lot of mental mistakes. It wasn’t that they stopped us. We set that up by ourselves,” Coach Thomas said. “We were battling back and forth in the second half but time was on their side. If we had played the first half like the second half we would have won.”
The DeSoto varsity “has a lot of talented players and our boys just didn’t show up the first half to play. It just wasn’t a good game for my boys fundamentally.”
In the Regents game, Coach Thomas noted the season has been one where her team gets in a rut it can’t get out of.
“The bad outweighed the good and when that happens, you’re not going to win,” she said. “Regents came to play in the JV game and they flipped the same score we did on them at their house, they did at our house.”
In the high school matchup, it was Senior Night and it was a physical game according to Thomas.
“Parker Beck dropped 31 points and next to the Lee Academy game, that was his best game all season,” Coach Thomas said. “He was offensively sound, defensively sound. Dakota Dawson at point guard ran it well. He was very aggressive on defense and Chandler Hayes played very physical. They played like they wanted to win. We still lost but they played great.”
Looking ahead to Friday’s game, the Rebels are looking to find a road win against Calhoun.
“They are a great team but they can be beat. We’ve got to take away their post player. If we can take him away the rest will have to prove they are shooters,” she said. “If all five of my boys come to play all four quarters, I’m expecting the W. They haven’t got one yet and that’s my main goal. We are going to be a great team in the near future as our junior high is something to see.”
The teams travel to Marvell on Monday January 27 as well to cash in their hopes and potential on the hardwood.
