HOLTON — Walkerville boys basketball has had a rough season so far, and it didn’t get any less so Saturday in the consolation game of the Holton holiday tournament, in which the Wildcats were buried by the Muskegon Catholic press early before losing 95-16.
The Wildcats fell to Holton 97-18 in the first game of the tournament the day before.
Muskegon Catholic threw a press defense at Walkerville early, a logical choice given how inexperienced the Wildcat players are. The ‘Cats struggled to get the ball into the frontcourt, and several turnovers led to easy layups. The Crusaders led 33-0 after the first quarter, at which point they backed off the press.
Walkerville coach Jeremy Dixon said while he can’t speak to exactly how experienced his players are as he’s a first-year coach, it’s clear the Wildcats haven’t spent as much time on the court as many of their opponents, and that’s a tough difference to overcome.
“In a lot of cases, we’re playing catch-up with certain things like that,” Dixon said. “We’re just working to improve from one day to the next.”
Once the Wildcats (0-6) no longer had to deal with the press, they were able to run a little bit more offense, though it didn’t yield immediate results. Walkerville launched a lot of three-pointers in the game, and two makes by Skylar Bajtke got his team on the board early in the quarter. However, the team still trailed 61-6 at the break.
Dixon said he was pleased his team continued to play hard throughout the game. It’s been a common message of his as scores get out of hand at times during the Wildcats’ season, and he feels his players have answered that call.
“Our guys keep fighting,” Dixon said. “That’s all I ask them to do...It’s difficult to have a rousing halftime speech when you’re getting beat like that. We just try to get the guys to keep a positive attitude, and I hope they understand that if they keep putting in the work, it’ll eventually pay off for them.”
Not only are the Wildcats very inexperienced, but as Dixon noted, they’re also undersized, which makes it difficult to keep opponents from getting to the basket. Catholic continued to create scoring chances throughout the game by attacking the rim. At times, Dixon employed a zone defense to try to mix things up, though no lasting solution presented itself.
In the fourth quarter, the Wildcats were able to knock down a few more long-range shots, and Hugh Shafer and Anthony Tanner each used hustle and good moves in the paint to get to the free throw line. The Crusaders, meanwhile, didn’t stop playing, but did empty the bench, allowing 11 of their players to get in the scorebook. Jay’vion Webb led all scorers with 21 points, 15 of them in the first quarter.
Bajtke’s six first-half points stood up for the team lead, and all five Wildcat field goals were three-pointers.
Dixon knows the season may continue to be a trying one, though the hope is the team can make some headway in skill development against West Michigan D League opposition. He’s pushing a focus on day-to-day improvements.
“We take each game one at a time and try to keep it positive, because we know we’re young and we’re inexperienced, so we just keep working at it,” Dixon said. “We’re just trying to improve each day. That’s all we can do, is just hope to be better one day than we were the next.”
