The Manhattan boys basketball team is now 0-2 to start off the 2020-2021 season. Although the Tribe came up just short last Friday against Hayden 58-66, the team believes their time is coming.

“Our defense was solid at times but when we were not [playing] solid defense, we put ourselves 

in tough situations,” senior Mason Reid said. “We just have to have a couple good practices and try and fix some of the mistakes we made.”

The main fault in the loss for the Indians was defense. Every time MHS came close to tying or getting ahead, Hayden would hit a big shot to put it out of a one possession lead. 

The two points the team wanted to improve on from the week before, where they fell to Lawrence, was making shots and playing solid defense. 

“We didn’t play good defense,” senior Owen Braxmeyer said. “We let them drive gaps and weren’t throwing hands on their shots. We hit shots though and found the open guy majority of the time which was good.”

The Tribe shot 37 % from the field and 29 % from three, which was better than last week’s 30 % from the field and 25 % from three shooting. Another huge difference this week from last was free throws. Manhattan was over 50 % shooting the ball from the line, while last week they were under, going 7-15.

The Indians now have a two game stretch in one week for the first time this year. Tonight, they’ll face off at home with rivals Junction City and then travel east on Friday night to play Topeka West.

“We just need to play better defense, communicate more, and just be more solid,” Braxmeyer said. “Offensively, we need to keep driving the gaps, finding the open guys, and trusting one another. Our shots will fall.”