Dike-New Hartford will travel to West Fork for a non-conference basketball doubleheader Thursday.
The Wolverine boys (5-7) have won two straight for their first win streak of the season, including a 62 percent shooting night against Jesup Monday. Head Coach Alex Tagtow says they’re working to find more ways to overcome their relative lack of experience, playing without two regular starters due to injuries.
“Too many live ball turnovers since Christmas break, really before Christmas too,” Tagtow says. “That’s part of our youth. It’s part of our inexperience, things that maybe guys are accustomed to being able to do playing at the JV level and things like that. So taking care of the ball is big for us. And then, we’ve really been emphasizing a lot, not settling for good shots, and trying to get great shots every possession. I think we’ve really been growing in that area to be really honest with you with, the last couple of games, the first couple coming out of break. In that same sense, we’ve got a long way to go. Just kind of understanding what the shots we want to get are and trying to maximize those, and we’re getting there. And once we get it figured out, I think we’ll see uptick in those categories.”
West Fork (3-6) has lost more games than it has won since the start of January, but Head Coach Abe Maske says they’re close to a breakthrough performance.
“We don’t lack the drive, we don’t lack the effort,” Maske says. “The boys are willing to do what we need to do. To say we’re close in all would be a great statement, because we are. We just need that consistency. We’ve just got to continue to get better, cut down on our mental lapses in the game. And we get to the end of year, we’re going to be a team that nobody wants to play. So we just got to keep pushing ourselves and getting better.”
After a slow start, the Wolverine girls (7-5) have hit a hot streak, winning six of their last seven games. In a win over Jesup, Payton Foster scored 22 points while connecting on 8/13 shots. West Fork (4-6) will look to get back in the win column after falling to Nashua-Plainfield earlier in the week.
The doubleheader will start at 6:15 p.m.
