There is still plenty of work to be done for boys basketball coach Anthony Lewis and his South Kitsap Wolves, who had a 77-59 season-finale loss to the visiting Curtis Vikings Jan. 26.
The Wolves entered the game practically out of the playoff picture and looking to play spoiler for a night against the second-best team in the South Puget Sound League. But despite some promising play from key developing players, Lewis found himself wondering what could have gone differently.
“At this point, it’s just reflecting on how this season went and what I could have done better personally as a coach,” he said. “It’s just figuring out how to apply that going forward so I can put these guys in the best position to win.”
After a close first half, the Vikings outscored the Wolves 23-8 in the third quarter to pull away for good. Nine of those points came from Viking senior Devin Whitten, who scored a game-high 32 points. Despite that big performance, it was the Wolves who beat themselves, Lewis said.
“It was just bad turnovers and just not getting the 50-50 balls we needed to get. You want to show energy and emotion, but we were just lacking it in the third” period, he said. “Part of that is just pushing them more in practice, focusing more on making practice harder than the games. So the games moving forward can seem easier to them.”
Senior Tyler Hansen led SK with 17 points, followed by junior Josaiah Asuega’s 12-point performance. Ten Wolves scored in the game.
It was a rough end to an SK season that started with tremendous promise. The Wolves doubled their win total from last season, winning three of their first four games, and boasted a 4-3 record headed into its highly anticipated contest against Bremerton.
Little did anybody know their Dec. 20 70-63 victory over Bonnet Creek would be the last in the win column, with league competition getting the best of the Wolves.
Despite the loss, The Den was packed with students, parents and visiting spectators to celebrate the regular season’s end. Lewis credited the crowd for showing up to cheer on the seniors one last time. “I just hope that moving forward we can get every game to be high up like this,” he said.
