Potter-Dix Boys Outlast Banner County

The Banner County Wildcats faced off against the Potter-Dix Coyotes Saturday, December 1, on their home court, losing 51-35.

“We got a bunch of gamers and they hit the boards. We struggled getting into our offenses. There’s a lot of potential here. They’re young. They’re aggressive. This is our second game, and I think we get more experience with every game we play. We didn’t win the game, but we almost feel like we won the battle with the age we are,” Wildcats Head Coach Jim Wyatt said.

The Game started out rough for the Wildcats with the Coyotes taking a quick lead in the first quarter with Bryant Knigge hitting a three pointer with 6:38 to go putting the Coyotes on the board. The lead grew throughout the rest of the first quarter with steals by Kyle Gorsuch who took them down court for 2 points each time, leaving Potter-Dix leading 17-6 at the end of the first.

The Wildcats fought back getting within 7 points of the Coyotes with the score 10 to 17 in the middle of the second through plays by Mike McKown, who was able to swing the ball around and find openings for his teammates under the hoop getting the ball through the Coyotes’ defense, but they just couldn’t keep the momentum going as their passes kept getting picked off by the Coyotes, forcing the Wildcats back down to a 13 point deficit by the end of the first half that they weren’t able to fully recover from.

The second half showed a very different Potter-Dix team than had struggled against the Sedgwick Cougars the night before through the teamwork of Kyle Gorsuch and Brady Knigge who were able to keep the Wildcats in check by working off of each other.

“Me and Brady have been playing together since we were in 3rd grade. So we knew each other and he kind of slowed down a tad to hit me on the block a few times for some quick layups. And we just worked together on defense. I just think we’re starting to come together as a team and starting to click a little bit,” Gorsuch said.

It would be easy for any player to be discouraged by a loss at the beginning of a season, but the Wildcats’ Mike McKown sees improvement in his team.

“I think we did pretty good as a team. We did better by leaps and bounds. Offensively, we just need to run the offense a little more and pass the ball around a few more times, and I think we’ll start getting more points and winning more games,” McKown says.

Though the score went in the Coyotes’ favor, the Wildcats achieved some impressive numbers of their own with 43 rebounds in the game with 17 coming from Hesten Soule.

“That’s something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before,” Wyatt said.