The boys had an enjoyable morning with their billet families before we farewelled West Point in the afternoon. Our hosts were again amazing with our sincere thanks to DJ, Eric, Nick and Alyssa for making our stay in West Point such a memorable experience. Our next school visit was Skutt Catholic High School ( http://www.skuttcatholic.com/ ) back in Omaha. We arrived at the school in the afternoon, were warmly welcomed by the Head Coach and Assistant Principal Jon Burt, and went straight into our games.
The Freshman game was very tight. The lead changed throughout the game but unfortunately in the end we went down by four points. Liam Brown owned the boards with outstanding rebounding, Jayden Tanevski ‘s shooting was superb and Callum Price was great under the basket and had his best game on tour. Even though Skutt were in foul trouble for most of the second half we were unable to capitalise from the charity line. Our free throw shooting will need to considerably improve. Jake Gebron commented after the game – “We all played really well. Even though there were some negatives we fought all the way. Skutt in the end were just too strong. Our team needs to improve our awareness and hustle for the ball. Overall it was a great close game and we really learnt a lot from the experience.” The quarter scores were: 11-16, 23-22, 43-37, 58-62.
Skutt were very strong in the Junior Varsity game. Peter Gullotta and Joe Di Chiara worked the floor hard in defence and ran the offensive plays well. However Skutt dominated in most areas throughout the game. “We had a mistake riddled opening period, but we picked up our defence in the second quarter, coupled with improvements in running plays” said Erin Saricilar. He also commented – “We need to work on our communication and shot selection.” The quarter scores were: 2-14, 11-26, 16-47, 30-68.
The Varsity game was again a big occasion, with the boys bouncing back from a disappointing performance against West Point. There is no substitute for effort and tonight this was evident right from the start. Even though we lost the game, we walked away knowing that we improved as a team and moved forward. Luke Tucker bounced back to early tour form and Jaden Weldon played hard at both ends for every minute he was on the court. James Begley gave the team some good solid minutes in the second half and Jed Maher’s and Dane Ristovski’s game awareness continues to improve. Liam Thomas commented after the game – “Our decision making was a lot better, as was our concentration. We still need to work on our communication.” The quarter scores were: 10-27, 19-39, 29-53,43-70.
You can find a full set of today’s photos and videos at the following link:
Best wishes.
