Cair Paravel girls win against Bishop Ward, 3 takeaways from boys loss
The Cair Paravel girls (5-6) and boys (8-3) basketball teams hosted Bishop Ward on Tuesday night.
After starting 0-4, the girls have won five of their last seven including a 38-27 win on Tuesday to improve to 5-6 while Bishop Ward fell to 1-7.
It was tied at 20 heading into halftime and in the third quarter, Cair Paravel held Bishop Ward to zero points before pulling away in the fourth quarter.
Senior guard Jaley Barkley was a focal point for Bishop Ward and was held to seven points. She got her teammates involved, with senior Lauren Drum leading the team with 12 points.
Coming off a McLouth Tournament win, the boys came out flat against the Bishop Ward boys (7-2) and dropped a tough contest, 67-41.
Here are three takeaways from the boys game.
Foul trouble ends things early
Heading into the McLouth Tournament, eight of their 11 players were averaging double digit minutes, with depth a strong point to this team.
But on Tuesday against Bishop Ward, three starters in Zach Clark, the team's leading scorer, Noah Hastert, the team's leading rebounder and assist man, and Carter Brian, a double digit scorer and important part of the rebounding game, picked up two fouls in the first quarter.
"It hurts getting three starters in foul trouble in the first quarter and having to sit three guys that early," said coach Mike Malloy. "It was the game at that point, we have to get tougher. We got bullied that game. A lot of bodies on us but we have to play thru that."
Cair Paravel was able to hang tough, trailing 19-14 after the first quarter but were outscored 24-3 in the second quarter and trailed 43-17 at halftime, 58-27 after three quarters and 67-41 when the final whistle blew.
Defense struggles
One of the things Malloy talked about wanting to continue improve on in the back half of the schedule earlier in the day before the game was team and individual defense.
"We’ve been playing well as a team on offense, we need to pick up our defense and stop penetration," said Malloy. "Keep (opponents) outside of the lane and not let the guards penetrate. We watched a little film on that last night, hopefully we see that in the next week or so, or tonight."
The fouls came into play but so did the scoring of Bishop Ward as they scored five three pointers, including four in their second quarter 24-3 run.
"We didn’t protect the paint," said Malloy. "That's when they started to get confident with the threes, we weren’t committing to switches. Somebody would holler, 'switch' but the other guy wouldn’t. Next thing you know they're getting layups instead of forcing them out of the paint."
Erase this game
Their two losses before Tuesday night came to Burlingame (53-45) and Heritage Christian Academy (76-75). Malloy said this group has gotten better every game and started to play some good basketball.
After a tough loss against Bishop Ward, Malloy said the message to the team after was to wipe the slate clean.
"We have to forget about tonight," said Malloy. "It's done, got to forget about that. Just like shooting, if you miss, you've got to forget about it. This is one we’ve got to forget about. I've pretty much already forgotten about it besides talking to you now."
Malloy went on to say that with the last second shot against Heritage Christian and playing a close game against Burlingame despite coming out flat, the loss against Bishop Ward was the first true negative of the season.
"Most of the year has been positive," said Malloy. "That's why you have to forget about things like tonight.
"The thing we do have to hold on to is, we have to play smarter. Sometimes you have to have a little gut check, a pride check. (Coaches) can’t do it for you."
Contact Seth Kinker at skinker@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @SethKinker.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Cair Paravel basketball splits with Bishop Ward
