Viking junior Aiden Ong pushes the ball up the court against two defenders during a home game in front of an energetic crowd. According Ong, playing at home provides a valuable boost heading into the season. “It means there’s going to be extra energy and momentum,” Ong said. “With a loud home crowd, the opponents will feel the pressure, and our team can use that energy and channel it into the game.”
The Palo Alto Vikings Boys Basketball team (1-0) is set to play it’s second game against the Overfelt Royals (2-3) 7 p.m. Friday at home.
According to Viking junior Daniel Segev, the Vikings need to have the ability to “stack days.”
“I think our mindset coming into this next game is just not to be complacent,” Segev said. “We have to just stack the days, stack the wins, and if we continue to play together like we did in game one … making the right reads and making the right passes, playing unselfishly … we’ll continue to win and have an exciting season ahead of us.”
According to Viking head coach Jeff Lamere, the key to securing a victory on Friday lies in mastering fundamentals rather than worrying about complex scouting reports. Since many programs are still playing their first or second games of the year, there is little film available on the opposition. This shifts the focus, specifically toward ball security and playing “value possessions.”
“At this point in the season, there is not a lot of scouting done,” LaMere said. “Normally, defense is a little ahead of offense, so plays on the margins are very important. We want to play value possessions and play a low-turnover game.”
On the offensive end, the coaching staff is emphasizing a “good to great” philosophy.
“Defensively, we need to play with energy, communicate, and play together on a string,” LaMere said. “What that means is you are constantly shifting and moving as the ball moves and getting to the split line/help side when you are away from the ball.”
However, the physical game is only half the battle. According to Segev, the team has been working hard to correct a mental challenge that plagued them during the preseason. The team aims to maintain energy when the momentum shifts against them.
“The main theme for us … is that we have a lot of energy when we go on runs and when we’re up, but we kind of start to die down when things don’t start to go our way,” Segev said. “It’s a big theme for us that we have to stay together and write out the highs and lows. If we as a team can stick together … I think we can win on Friday.”
Lamere echoed this view, noting that the path to victory requires keeping the game simple.
“We believe if we execute the fundamentals (the process), we will have a great chance to win the game,” Lamere said.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source palyvoice.com ’
