While the Bethel girls’ basketball team has already won four games this season, and enjoys a winning record after seven games, there is still a lot of work to do, as shown Thursday night in a 66-25 loss to league leading Tri-Village.
The Bees have come a long way, but still have yet to achieve the level of play where the Patriots are at. They continue to work toward that goal as the Bees are showing constant improvement.
“I told the girls that game helped us better than it helped Tri-Village because now we know where our bar is,” said Bethel coach Mark Mays. “They are where we want to be, they are our guide to where we are striving for.”
“This game is behind us now, we know where we need to make corrections. To get to the next level we need to move forward, we have another game to play (Saturday).”
Tri-Village led 31-11 at the half, then the Bees watched as the Patriots put together a 23-2 third quarter to separate themselves from the Bees.
“We started out confident but it was the turnovers that got us headed in the wrong direction,” Mays said. “They put the squeeze on us defensively, and we didn’t react too well.”
“They are a really good team. We were doing some good things early, but Tri-Village took their defense to the next level and good teams do that. They make you react to what they are doing.”
Alaina Hawthorn scored eight to lead the Bees, while Becky Schweiterman added six.
“The kids are hungry to get better,” Mays said. “That means everything you need to do as a basketball player, you need to put that time in. That is what it takes.”
Bethel sits one-third of way through the way through the regular season, and Mays likes the direction his team is going.
“We are where I thought we would be at this point,” he said. “The goals are to beat the teams that we should beat, and be competitive with the teams that are really tough.”
He noted the strong play of Kayla Grable, who is doing an outstanding guard still working on her game.
“Last year, she wasn’t our point guard, so she is learning how to take care of the ball,” Mays said. “Also Becky (Schweiterman) is doing a nice job on the inside for us. Hawthorn can learn to excel and needs to get stronger and Tia Koewler will be back for us this week coming off on injury.”
“We need to play one game at a time, and I expect us to correct the things we aren’t doing well and win some ballgames.”