‘Classic’ clash
Published 5:15 pm Friday, December 25, 2009
There is one thing that Charles Henderson boys’ basketball team wanted for Christmas – but it will have to wait until today to see if it got it.
The last time the Trojans won was all the back on Dec. 1 but the team is hoping that won’t be the case for much longer.
After starting the season with four wins in the first six games of the season, including a three game winning streak, the Trojans now find themselves in the exact opposite situation.
“They are alright,” Hollis said during the team’s mentality during the recent losing streak.
“This is a group that really doesn’t let losses get to them – which is a good thing.
“Sometimes consecutive losses can really affect a team – but these guys have responded well during practice this week,” he added.
With the loss on Monday night on the road against Enterprise, CHHS are losers of three-straight games, and for the first time this season its record is below .500 at 4-5.
“We need to learn from our mistakes,” Hollis said. “We need to start putting what we are doing in practice into games.”
Each of the three losses have come by eight points or less but the Trojans have failed to shoot the ball well in those games.
The team’s shooting percentage for this current losing streak averages to just below 37 percent.
CHHS has been just as cold from beyond the arc as well.
In the past two games, the Trojans have hit just eight of its 33 3-point attempts, which comes out to 22 percent.
“We are going through a funk right now,” Hollis said.
“Whether we come out of it is up to how hard the kids want to work.
“Some players don’t have the right attitude right now and that’s not going to help us right now. Players need to be receptive and willing to work on getting better,” the coach added.
If CHHS wants to snap its losing streak, it will have to do so against a tough out of state opponent.
The Trojans will take on Whitefield Academy, from Atlanta, today in the first round of the Dothan Eagle Christmas Classic.
“I don’t know too much about [Whitefield],” Hollis said.
“What I do know about them is they are aggressive and have a text book man-to-man defense. They talk well with the ball and are a pretty good team.”
The Wolfpack are coming off a state championship season in 2008 and are currently 7-1, with its one loss coming at the hands of Huffman High School, which is located in Birmingham.
If the Trojans want to taste victory for the first time in weeks, the team’s shooting percentage is not the only thing that needs to be fix.
As of late, the team has had a tough time closing games out according to Hollis.
In Tuesday’s loss, CHHS led at the half, however only scored six points in the third quarter, and was out scored 38 to 23 in the second half en route to the defeat.
“We will be ready to play [today],” Hollis said. “But we have got to play all four quarters.”
“We have had one bad quarter [in each of our losses] and as long as we can understand what we are doing wrong – and fix it, we will OK.
“I promise, we will get better,” he added.
The Trojans and the Wolfpack will meet on the court of the Ozark Civic Center tonight at 9:30 p.m.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students.