Week in Review

Week in Review

The Tribe44 Podcast is designed to provide extra spotlight to our student athletes who work hard every day. With our Special guest appearance this week taking up the majority of the time, we were unable to do a recap on the show but wanted to make sure that we provided our take from the Indians and Lady Indians over the course of the last week.

The Indians have gone 1-2 since the last podcast came out (shameless plug: they come out on Thursdays). They started out with a win over Wayne County in overtime, but rounded things out with two straight losses to Metcalfe and Casey County.

The Lady Indians dropped a couple this week to Metcalfe and Casey as well.

The Positives

Front Court Play

Both the Indians and Lady Indians bolstered a disappointing week with excellent performances on the low block. Luke Janes, the 6’4” inside threat for the Indians posted double-doubles in two of the three games this week. Against Wayne County, he put up a respectable 13 points and 10 rebounds and rounded things out with a huge 12 points and 17 rebounds as well as dishing out several assists in the game at Casey County.

Ellie Cheatham has been the anchor in the paint for the Lady Indians as she posted two double-doubles over the week, while also leading the team in scoring; Cheatham posted a spectacular 15/15 stat line in one such performance. Her momentum didn’t slow at all in the Casey County game as she posted 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Backcourt Scoring

On the boys’ side, we knew coming into the season that guard play was going to be a strength and so far that has been the case. Lucas Pooler led the way in the Wayne County game with an eye-popping 27 points and followed with 10 against Metcalfe and 11 against the Rebels in the heartbreaker. Aaron Steele led the Indians in scoring in both the Casey and Metcalfe games with 11 and 13 points in those matchups. Conner Loy added 20 in the Wayne County win and Steele contributed a respectable 17 points of his own.

The Lady Indians had a jolt off the bench each game this week. Freshman Hannah West put up 11 points in the loss at Casey County and 13 points against the Hornets.

Team Defense

Defensively, both teams have done a good job this week. The boys held opponents to around 40% from the field. The problems have come on second-chance buckets. The girls were able to hold Casey County to just four points in the first quarter and 17 points for the half. Three point defense is still causing problems for the Lady Indians as Metcalfe County added to the list of good outside shooting performances against the Tribe.

Coach’s Comments

Coach Breeze

“Both games our defense played well. We held both teams to around 40% from the field, but we struggled to box out and rebound the basketball and it hurt us in both games. We are boxing out but not driving back and giving up to many 2nd chance points in both games.

Metcalfe's strength bothered us, we missed 14 layups in that game that we should have finished, but were bothered by contact and we didn't finish those well.

Casey County, the game was lost at the free throw line, we had a 58-54 lead in the last minute and missed two front ends of the bonus. We should have run more clock. We are not very efficient right now at knowing time, score, and situation. We went 3-11 from the free throw line that game, three front ends of the bonus.”

Coach Reliford

“We played pretty well in spurts against Metcalfe Co. They hit a barrage of threes to start the 3rd quarter and from then on it was catch-up time. A major struggle was our ability to take care of the ball. On a positive note, as a team we put up 57 points, where we only put up 50+ points in 3 games last season.

Defensively, we played well in the first half against Casey Co. We held them to four points in the 1st quarter and we were up 20-17 at the half. Down two in the last seconds of the third, Casey County hit a three at the buzzer to go up five and never looked back. We struggled to overcome that shot. Also, we missed Laney Stotts, who went down with an ankle injury early in the third. She will be out for a little while. No timetable for her return.”