The Solanco boys basketball team did not have any answers for Cocalico's potent offense. The Mules tried a zone defense in the first half and then switched to a man-to-man after halftime. It wasn't for lack of effort, but neither worked. After a closely-contested first quarter, the visiting Eagles pulled away for a 75-54 victory for the Mules Monday night, February 4. "They're a good team," Solanco coach Scott Long said of Cocalico. "They're big and strong and they have three or four shooters. We knew that so we thought our zone gave us the best chance to try to stop them. We felt like in man they would really get after us and take it to the basket, which they did. You saw in the second half, once we had to go man when we were down 12 or 13 points, it was over. They ballooned it to 25. We knew that was going to happen but you can't sit in a zone down 12 or 13 points. They're a good team and they shot well. We thought in a zone if we could take away their top two shooters, then we would have a chance. But we couldn't do that."
Solanco scored the final five points of the first quarter on a basket by Zed Baker and three-pointer by Dawson Kreider to narrow the gap to 17-15. Cocalico made four three-pointers in the second quarter to grab a 41-30 halftime lead. "In general, they just made life difficult because they're so long," said Long. "You can see the size differential on the court. I don't think we played poorly offensively in the first half. We hit some shots, kept it relatively close. But we had to work hard to get those shots. We had trouble scoring around the rim. Even if we did beat our guy, their help was coming. They have players 6-4 and 6-5 and that makes it difficult. But I thought our kids played hard. They battled. I'm proud of the effort. They don't quit. They just play and I appreciate that about them." Cocalico busted the game wide open in the third quarter, outscoring the Mules 23-7 to pad the cushion to 64-37. Kreider led Solanco with 14 points. Baker added 12 and Jalen Henry notched nine. Long, who is relinquishing his coaching job at the end of the season to become Solanco High principal in July, is disappointed with the Mules' record, but not his players' determination and dedication. "I just told our guys, 'We strive to win games. But we're here because we love basketball'," Long said. "We fell fortunate to be involved with high school basketball. They're going to be taking away a lot of memories. There are life lessons. Right now, these guys are learning how to deal with failure and But every time we fail, they come back the next day ready to succeed. They're putting themselves in a situation where they have the opportunity succeed. That's a life lesson they're not going to forget. That's going to be with them for a long time. So for me, it's more than wins and losses. We want to win. We're not happy we're 3-17, but there's more than just wins and losses." Comments are closed.
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