Banner County Boys Topped By Leyton At Home

The Banner County Wildcats put up a fight against the Leyton Warriors, ultimately being overcome in their loss at home December 14.

The Wildcats showed promise in the first quarter, with Mike McKown, putting the Wildcats on the board with a three pointer, edging them ahead 3-2 with 6:43 to go in the first quarter.

The Warriors started pulling away near the end of the first, sneaking passes behind the Wildcats’ defense for easy layups. The visitors also started anticipating the Wildcats pressure in the paint and switched to jump shots on the three point line with Sam Schumacher hitting a few causing the Warriors to end the half with a 14 point lead.

The second half saw Leyton putting more pressure on the Wildcats with a full court press and the use of traps troubling the Banner County offense. The Wildcats were able to adjust by swinging the ball around the perimeter.

“When they crowd you, other people around you are open, and you have to take advantage of that,” Brenton Soule said.

Though Banner County tried their best to close the gap in the score, they ultimately lost 68-40. However, the Wildcats’ players aren’t hanging their heads after the loss.

“I felt pretty good about it, even though we lost. I think it’s one of the best games we played all year. Some stuff just didn’t go for us, too many turnovers and not enough rebounds,” McKown said.

McKown’s sentiment was echoed by Wildcats’ Head Coach Jim Wyatt who saw a lot of positives coming out of the game.

“We did some really good things tonight. The kids know what they did well and what they did wrong. We have some things to work on still, but we’re going to take all the positive things we did in this game and work on them more,” Wyatt said.