Tigers to refocus during break
CLARINDA — “We’re competing hard. We’ve got to get our edge to be a little sharper right now.”
Red Oak boys basketball coach Theo Fundermann made that clear following Red Oak’s 64-50 loss on the road Thursday to Clarinda.
“The key for us right now is we got to figure out a way to limit these runs that we’ve continually given up these last five games,” Fundermann said. “There’s just a point and time in every game where we’ve given up a run and that has a lot to do with maintaining a high level of focus.”
The Tigers struggled early in the game as Clarinda scored 11 of the first 13 points, forcing Red Oak to burn a timeout with 4:30 left in the first quarter. Red Oak scored a few more points, courtesy of a floating lay-up by Conner Jansky, as well as free throws from Ryan Leininger and Eddie Perez and a Jordan Nelson lay-up.
However, Red Oak ended the first quarter trailing 23-8.
The Tigers recuperated thanks to some points from Leininger, as well as Nelson, who sank a three-pointer, to get the Clarinda lead down to 25-15.
Turnover mishaps plagued Clarinda as the Cardinals were forced to call a timeout after an offensive foul call with less than six minutes until halftime.
Following another timeout, Nelson buried a long range three-pointer to get the lead down to seven. Leininger followed up with a two-pointer, before Clarinda scored again.
The Tigers tried to close the gap, while Clarinda kept trying to get back their double-digit lead.
Clarinda did get the lead back as high as 13 in the half.
Red Oak was able to score late, including free throws from Nelson, to head into halftime trailing Clarinda 40-30.
Red Oak tried to stay within 10 points during the third quarter, however the Cardinals pulled away and led 58-38 heading into the final period.
The scoring slowed down for Clarinda during the fourth quarter, as they finished with six.
Nelson scored on a couple of buckets and free throws to try and get the Tigers back in the game.
Nelson and Leininger were the co-leaders in scoring for the Tigers, scoring 17 points.
Evan Mellott finished with six points for the Tigers, while Jansky, a sophomore who started his second varsity game of the week, had five.
“Evan is going to give you everything he’s got every time out. You got to just appreciate what he does and how hard he goes,” Fundermann said. “He’s a guy that you love to coach.”
Perez had three points and Nick Carlson scored two.
“We’ve got some nice athletes, Eddie Perez is one of them, that can come in there and create some opportunities for us defensively,” Fundermann said. “That’s what we’re looking for, we’ve got to be getting after the basketball and getting in to help and I think Eddie did a nice job of that.”
Because several of the guards were out for the game, including Brendon Birt, who had an injury, Red Oak brought up Ryan Lundgren from the freshman team.
Lundgren played more of the game after Jansky went down with an injury during the third quarter.
“We had freshman Ryan Lundgren, who we brought up, who has done a nice job, as well as all of our freshmen, have done a really nice job this year,” Fundermann said. “Ryan we brought up to give us another option at that guard spot, and I thought he did a nice job.”
Red Oak also lost last Tuesday on the road to Denison-Schleswig 56-45. Leininger led the way with 24 points.
The Tigers enter the holiday break with a 0-6 record.
Red Oak enters the break with several weeks until the next game, which will be Jan. 3 at home versus Glenwood.
“The expectation is we’ve got to win all 50/50 balls. We can’t allow ourselves to turn the basketball over and not get loose basketballs,” Fundermann said. “It’s essential for us to win that battle. Obviously we’ve got to do a better job on the boards as well. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but I think this group can do it, moving forward.”