Every Game is a Lesson

Dubuque, IA - The Emmaus Eagles men's team returned early from Christmas break to prepare for Tuesday's game against Ozark Christian. Knowing Ozark was a solid opponent, Coach Wilkerson and Coach Smith recognized that their players would have to come back ready to focus and execute in the short amount of practice time allotted. The response was exactly what they were looking for as the Eagles responded with four very solid days of practice and entered Tuesday's game a bit beat up, but eager to get on the court and show Ozark that they were ready to play.

Moments into the game, starting point guard Kyle Pikaart made a move to the basket and came down wrong on his ankle. He was carried off the court and would not return. This would be a blow to the Eagles as he had shown he could run the offense patiently and properly. However, Emmaus knew they would have to keep playing regardless. After allowing them to make an early run, they played Ozark even for most of the first half. As the clock ran down, Skyler Sandry found an opening in the lane to drive and scoop in a layup right before the buzzer went off. The Eagles would find themselves down by eight at half.

The message was clear in the locker room: both teams wanted to win this game, but who was going to want to win it more? Coach Wilkerson told his team that he still had confidence that they would win. "The deficit in the score was due to some mistakes and missed shots, which are two very correctable things." Coach Wilkerson went on to add that the effort was there, but it might require an extra notch to bring home a victory.

Though the effort continued in the second half, so did the mental mistakes and missed shots. Fatigue set in and the Ozark Ambassadors slowly pulled away. Despite only being down by eight at the half, the Eagles fell 83-61 to drop to .500 on the season at 3-3. After the game, Coach Wilkerson addressed the team with the message that though this wasn't the step they were anticipating, it was still a step towards the goal of being successful at the national tournament. "Every game is a lesson and usually the losses produce better results. We never like losing, but if our guys can use this as motivation to improve and work together as a team, it will be worth it in the long run."

Emmaus gets a couple of days off before traveling to Ankeny, IA where Faith Baptist College will host their games against Calvary on Friday (6:00) and Oak Hills on Saturday (12:00).