by Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

What Kennedy Catholic's got the Evergreen basketball team needs to find, said, Joseph Thach, the team's leading scorer of a loss against the Lancers.

The visiting Lancers wrote this game's ending early, grabbing a 27-7 lead after just the first-quarter, en route to a 73-40 Seamount League win Friday.

The Lancers improved to 7-0 in the Seamount and 11-2, overall while the Wolverines dropped to 2-4 and 3-10, overall.

And, what do the Lancers have that Thach's team needs to find?

"Teamwork, playing within a system," said Thach. "And, we are not going to just play as a team, we are going to play physical, bump the screen. I felt like that was the difference-maker. They played hard 'D' and switched off the screens. We have got to do that, too, get low, put a hand in their face, contest every shot"
And, that's really what was the difference in this game, the easy, open, shots that Lancers players in the corners, like Diller, knocked down early on, giving the visitors momentum, stifling the good-sized crowds reason to cheer on their team. The Lancers made their shots, nice shots, but a lot of those shots, in this game, were uncontested shots. The Lancers made 4 of 5 three-point shots in the first quarter. Three by the Lancers' Parker Diller, who scored 13 first-quarter points, not to mention, a game-high, 19.

"Their intensity was different," said Thach of the Lancers. "the way they were playing as a team. I felt like they didn't miss a single shot."

The Lancers, in the first quarter, shot 8-for-11, or, 72 percent.

Meanwhile, the Wolverines did shoot decent from three-point range, making 2-for-5 from behind the arc in the first quarter, but, their field goal shooting was a woeful, 0-for-6 in that frame. Those early, first-quarter numbers greatly led to the Wolverines' having no chance after that in this game. Can't be outscored by 20 points in the first quarter and expect to comeback and get the 'w.'

So, nothing changed in the second quarter either for the Wolverines' good despite their shooting shot-for-shot with the Lancers in that quarter. as, both teams scored 19 points in it. But, that disastrous first quarter meant that the score going into halftime was 46-26, Lancers, and, a 'win' was not in the offing for the home team in any way, shape, or form.

And, the Lancers have that something Thach said his team desperately needs--which they do need because Thach said they have to win the rest of their Seamount games this season if they want to make the playoffs. And, the Lancers' Diller explained what that something was that was on his team. And, even more than that, that something was inside himself.

"Being a shooter, you have to have a lot of confidence," said Diller. "And, put a lot of preparation into it."
That's it, a surety of himself, and, a preparedness to his game before the game even started, except Diller said his team goes into games, playing with a trio of 'E' mentality, it's not just him.
"We want to play every game with energy, effort, and, execution, the three 'Es," said Parker.
So, that's that, and, in the third quarter, the Lancers, it's no secret , they just kept on playing with energy, with effort, with execution, and outscored the Wolverines, 14-7, doing things distributively with the ball for Lancers' coach, Don Hoffman's team.

"We shared the ball," said Diller, a senior on the Lancers.

That was the whole game, too, as eight of the 11 players on the Lancers scored in this game.

The fourth quarter was no better for the Wolverines, except, by actual score, as, they were outscored by one less point in that frame, 13-7, by the Lancers. But, add up the the two frames, third and fourth quarters, and, the Lancers outscored the Wolverines, 27-14, so, that's not good, but... The Wolverines can, at least, say they did improve, some, to hold the Lancers to less scoring in the third and fourth quarters.

Thach did make a number of athletic plays in the game, good passes to teammates, in addition to hist team-high point total and 2-for-3 three-point shooting.

The prettiest play of the night for the Wolverines was a pass backwards from junior, Alexis Rivera, to Thach, who hit a three-point shot, but, that was late in the fourth quarter and only made the score 73-36 with two minutes left in the fourth quarter. And, things could have been even worse after the first quarter but Brandon Valencia, a senior, knocked down a three-point shot in the finals seconds then.

But, just not consistent play by the Wolverines, from the start, and, no balanced scoring, and, soft defense on the Lancers' shooters, did them in, as Thach aforementioned.

And, Thach mentioned he didn't think the Lancers 'missed a single shot,' he was, likely, referring to the first quarter but for the game the Lancers shot very well, too, compared to the Wolverines, as one could expect.
The Lancers, for the entire game, shot 24-for-35, from the floor, or, 69%. And, for threes, the foe shot 8-for-12, translating to 67% shooting. Meanwhile, the Wolverines shot, for the game, 8-for-28, from the floor, or, 29%, and, three-shooting, 7-for-17, or, 41%. Free throw shooting was pretty much a non-factor, with the Lancers hitting 4-of-7 from the stripe, and, the Wolverines, 3-for-5.

A big problem from that big shooting percentrage in the game came from Thach's double digit scoring numbers, 15, not having any balance, no one else made it to, at least, 10 points, in scoring, four scored four points, or, less, for the Wolverines.

Just way too many misses shooting the basketball by the Wolverines in the first quarter, and, way too many open shots made by the Lancers in the first quarter was what really told the story of this game. With that kind of beginning written, the middle and ending were pretty much already known. Rarely, a team comes back from being down 20 points in a game, maybe, five percent of the time, and, that's probably, even, too high a percent.

And, what did the Wolverines coach, Tony White, say to his players after the game?

"We got to get getter," said Thach. "If we really want to make the playoffs, we have to play as a team."