Boone Central struggled out of the gate Saturday, dropping a 53-25 decision to visiting Lakeview in the delayed opener of the 2020-21 girls basketball season.
The young Cardinals were sluggish in the first half and never did establish offensive rhythm or momentum as Lakeview raced to a 24-8 halftime lead. Boone Central increased its scoring output to 17 points over the final two periods, but could not mount a serious challenge.
“It was good to get back on the court. However, it’s pretty obvious scoring was an issue for us,” said Boone Central Coach Andy Imus. “We just did not get a very good start offensively, scoring four first-quarter points.
“We really struggled getting the ball into the interior of their 1-3-1 zone with either back side flashers, high post feeds or block looks. Our ball movement was not very good and we didn’t attack with confidence.
“At halftime, we made a switch to zone ourselves. I thought that change defensively caused Lakeview a few fits, but we just struggled getting rebounds or loose balls here or there that resulted in points for them. We had 18 turnovers and one assist in the first half, which was especially frustrating because taking care of the ball was something we stressed in preseason practice and talked about prior to the game. We did a better job in the second half, with only seven turnovers and four assists.
“ Defensively, we need to continue to work on our conditioning because we had some moments where our rotations weren’t quick enough, and some tiredness set in. It was a game we can learn from our mistakes and help us get better moving forward.”
Boone Central’s offensive woes were summed up by the numbers. The Cardinals made just 6-of-26 2-point field goal attempts, 2-of-18 3-point tries and 7-of-13 free throws. Boone Central committed 9 more turnovers than Lakeview (25-16) and was outscored 28-12 in the paint.
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