Coyotes open season with tough loss

The Potter-Dix Coyotes opened their basketball season at the Kimball Invitational on Friday, Dec. 2 with a 69-5 loss against the aggressive Dundy County-Stratton Tigers.

“In short, we struggled with every aspect of the game against Dundy Co. We had some first game jitters and Dundy is a very good ball team,” coach Ryan Mumm said. “They put a strong press on us and got out to an early lead that we just didn’t recover from the remainder of the game.”

The Tigers held the Coyotes to just five points throughout the game. Coyotes scoring began in the first quarter when Tyrus Gawith landed a two-point field goal, but that was the only shot made in the first half.

In the third quarter Dylan Nielsen bucketed a trey, bringing the Coyote board up to five, but the Tigers already led by nearly 50 points.

“The shots we took weren’t necessarily bad ones against Dundy Co, we just couldn’t get the ball to go in,” Mumm said. “Shooting is something we work on daily in practice and that showed Saturday. We shot 45% from the floor. We were more aggressive with the ball and were able to get some better looks at the basket.”

In Saturday’s game against Morrill, the Coyotes fared better but sill came out with a 55-32 loss.

Scoring against the Lions was led by Gawith with eleven including one three-point field goal, followed by Nielsen and Connor Williams with seven each including one trey each, JT Herboldsheimer with five and Michael Steele with two.

Nielsen led the rebound efforts as well, with nine total and Gawith grabbed six. Williams and freshman Terell Gray rebounded two each and Steele snatched one.

Williams was credited with five assists and three steals, Nielsen added two assists and one steal, as did Herboldsheimer, and Steele recorded one assist and one steal.

“We will improve as the season progresses simply from being more familiar with each other and communicating better,” Mumm concluded. “Our communication was lacking and we are learning how to play as a cohesive unit. We are going to play some big, physical teams this year and we’re going to have to match that.”

The Coyotes will get their next shot at a win on Friday, Dec. 9 at Creek Valley High School in Chappell with a game time of 5 p.m.

Potter-Dix 2 0 3 0 – 5

Dundy Co. 25 22 10 12 – 69

Potter-Dix 3 6 9 14 – 32

Morrill 12 10 10 23 – 55