DANVILLE — Competitive teams always seem to have the right details together in the right moment.
But even though the Danville High boys basketball team have been competitive, the lack of details when the game gets tight have been a problem.
That problem was shown again on Saturday as the Vikings lost 59-54 to Springfield at the Watchfire Signs Shootout.
“We have to be better,” Danville head coach David Gouard said. “We talk about the details every single day in practice and focus. It is down to a lack of focus. We come out of a time out not knowing our assignment, not knowing our defense and it is a lack of focus on this point.”
The first half showed some of the best play from the Vikings all season as they had an 30-22 lead at halftime.
“We have to put together four solid quarters,” Gouard said. “I wish we didn’t have halftime somedays because it seems like our focus goes down after that.”
“I felt like we started rebounding, hitting shots and boxing out from the tip,” Danville senior forward Amir Beasley said. “We were doing the little things and the right things and the score showed it.
“In the second half, I think we got a little laid back and it was like the little things we were doing in the first half, we didn’t do in the second. We let them come back in and it became a dog fight.”
The dog fight started in the third when the Senators got the score to within 42-37 after the quarter and then scored 22 points in the fourth to get the win. Springfield’s Logan Peach had nine of those points with Noah Wade getting seven in the quarter.
“Coach (Kevin) Causley is one of my good friends and he coaches like I do,” Gouard said. “They kept chopping away until they took the lead and made it a dog fight at the end.”
Beasley had 23 points to lead the Vikings, while DeAndre Burns had 12 points and Kindynn Mason had seven points.
“Him and DeAndre gets battered a lot down low and they do a good job playing through,” Gouard said. “Amir battled past contact and he’s hitting the potential. One of our goals in the off season is to hit the weight room because they have to get stronger and get better.”
Burns and A’Jani Davis were plagued by foul trouble, but players like Jackson Gibson and Omar Sanchez came on and picked up the slack, combining for five points.
“I feel like Omar and Jackson are great players and when their time came, they did what they were supposed to do,” Beasley said.
“It’s going to take every one every game,” Gouard said. “They came in and had some solid minutes and going forward, we will have to depend on that because you can’t totally rely on the top five that plays the most minutes. Guys like Omar, Jackson and Calvonta (Modest) gave us some good minutes and held the fort down.”
Peach had 15 points for Springfield, while Elijah Wade had 13 points and Noah Wade added 12.
The Watchfire Signs shootout entered its seventh season and had 12 teams this year.
“It’s growing and I am glad we are sticking to it. We keep turning away teams sometimes because we don’t have room,” Gouard said. “Hopefully, we can have a girls shootout or an JV shootout. We have many ideas gloating around, but Watchfire is doing a good job and Mr. (Mark) Bacys and Miss (Megan) Mattingly are going a great job organizing it and all of the volunteers make it a great event and we want to keep it going.”
After playing Springfield Sacred-Heart Griffin on Monday, the Vikings will return home for senior night where Davis, Modest, Erien Smith, Tylan Brigham, Corey Frye, Nate Forthenberry, Victor Jones and Shaun Cottrell will be honored.
We want to build momentutm in the playoffs. we want to start stacking positive things before regionals. We put some things in the positive column, but we have to win on Monday and protect home court at least on Friday and get ready for regionals.
“We should end on top and go 2-0 and end with a great game for our seniors,” Beasley said. “I feel we can fix the problems in the next few games before regionals. When the regionals come around, we are 0-0.”
The Vikings were not the only local team in the shootout. Earlier on Saturday, Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin was in action against Rantoul and won 52-43. Keison Peoples had 40 points for the Blue Devils, while Noah Rice and Elijah Tidwell each added five points.
BHRA will host Westville tonight in a rematch of last month’s Vermilion County Championship Game.