ST. PAUL — Capping off three games of the Mark Terlip Classic, the St. Paul Indians boys fell to the Riverton Rams, 7536, on Saturday evening.
St. Paul lost all three games in its home tournament. “Playing bigger schools shows us where our weaknesses are,” St. Paul head coach Trey Johnson said. “We didn’t play super great on the first few nights. But we made some adjustments and I thought we played better. We started fixing some of the things we needed to.”
Against Plaza Heights Christian Academy on Thursday, St. Paul lost, 77-57.
Kingsten McRay and Malikye Hammans each led St. Paul with 13 points apiece in the defeat.
St. Paul then lost to Caney Valley on Friday, 89-19. McRay had eight points.
In Saturday’s loss, McRay again led the scoring efforts with a dozen points.
St. Paul is 1-3 to start the year, with the lone win coming in its opener against the Chetopa Green Hornets.
St. Paul sports a roster of 10 players just a year after slogging through a season with five.
“It’s huge for us,” Johnson said. “We had a kid go down with an ankle injury. We were able to go into the bench and make changes. We can do that in foul trouble and keep our legs underneath us in the game. We can rotate. I’m still trying to figure out my rotation and get guys playing time. But it’s big for us.”
Riverton’s boys won the Mark Terlip Classic title.
Up next
St. Paul faces Southern Coffey County and Crest on the road on Tuesday and Friday, respectively, to end its pre-Christmas slate.
“Attacking the basket is big for us,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to improve our aggressiveness on defense, especially in man-toman. And we’ve got to focus on rebounds.”
