Tigers look forward to games in new year

ST. REGIS – The St. Regis Tigers had difficult games last week as they faced defeat against the Charlo Vikings and the Lincoln Lynx.

In the game against Lincoln, on Thursday, December 19, the Tigers faced a final score of 21 to 33 in Lincoln’s favor. According to Head Coach Taylor Nordby, the team played hard, but was unable to make many of their shots to score points.

“It’s hard to beat a team when you’re not making your shots,” said Nordby.

However, some members of the team performed especially well. Nordby praised junior Dakota Wickham for a great game and said he scored 11 points against Lincoln.

In the game against Charlo, on Saturday, December 21, the Tigers faced a final score of 28 to 77. According to Nordby, the team faced similar challenges when it came time to take shots. While everyone played hard, there were some players who stood out.

Freshman Trevor Lowery and eighth grader Brandon Managhan both received the coach’s praise for their strong offense in the game against Charlo. The defense also shined with good blocks from junior Gibson Lowery, senior Dallas Lewis and eighth grader Eric Eslick.

The contributions of Managhan and Eslick were particularly noteworthy because of how much younger the pair are compared to their teammates. Both still in middle school, neither one has ever played at the varsity level before.

According to Nordby, the biggest fault for the losses lies in the poor shots. He said the games were well played with a strong team, but the shots did not go into the hoop.

“We were getting good looks, we were getting the shots we wanted, we just weren’t capitalizing on the opportunities that we had,” said Nordby.

The Tigers will not have any more games until after the start of the new year. The team’s next game will be Friday, January 3, in Noxon against the Red Devils.

In the two weeks before the game, Nordby plans to work to improve the team’s shots and overall ability to score in a game. He said the emphasis of every session up until the Noxon game would be on how to improve the team’s shots.

However, Nordby was still optimistic about how the Tigers would do against the Red Devils. He said Noxon had a strong football team earlier this year and the school’s basketball team was mostly made up of football players.

“They’re a big, physical football school, so they’ll have a big, physical football team,” said Nordby.

Nordby had good thoughts about where the team was at the moment and for the games to come in the new year.

“I’m optimistic for 2014,” he said.