Mehlville boys basketball ‘has work to do’

Four games into the season, the Mehlville Panthers boys basketball team still has work to do to play the way head coach Daniel Braun feels his squad is capable of.

“I think we’ve seen some glimpses of what this team is capable of, but haven’t come close to our potential yet,” Braun said. “We’ve had some stretches of playing great defense and other stretches of playing offense at a high level. Of course, we also had some big time slumps and droughts throughout the games as well.”

At 2-2, with glimpses of the potential that could be for his squad, Braun said his team will use their time at practice over winter break to focus on the positives.

“Our job over this 10 day break is to maximize the high stretches and minimize the low stretches,” he said. 

 So far, Mehlville has defeated Hancock 69-17 and Affton 68-46, while falling to Oakville 72-49 and Waterloo 61-41. 

“Our consistency is going to be key,” Braun said. “Can we string together more stretches of success and avoid the slump? I think each of our losses so far contained a four to five-minute stretch that we struggled, but we played a great game beyond that. That stretch was enough to put us in a big enough deficit that we couldn’t come back from.”

One of the bright spots for the Panthers this season has been the play of Brady Sights. Sights is averaging just over 20 points per game to go along with 8.5 rebounds per game. His best game of the season was a 33-point and 13-rebound effort in Mehlville’s win over Affton. Sights has scored over 14 points in each game this season and has a double-double in two of the Panthers four games. 

“He has scored at an efficient level so far, highlighted by that 33-point game against Affton,” Braun said. “While he has played great so far, he has not done it alone. Our two point guards, Marcus Jacobs and Jordan Hannam-Lewis, combined for 8 assists against Affton.”

Braun credited Hannam-Lewis and Jacobs for their play in Mehlville’s loss to Waterloo.  

“Those two possibly had their most efficient games of their careers against Waterloo,” he said. “We have other players capable of putting the ball in the basket as well. That just opens up the floor for every player.”

With a 10-day break, the Panthers will have time to work on all parts of the game, which is important so they don’t lose that competitive edge, which can happen during extended time away from game competition.

“This is the first time in my coaching career that I’ve had this long of a gap between two games and there’s some good and bad that goes with it,” Braun said. “It has given us some time to get back to the basics and stress fundamentals in practice, but also we have some competitors in the gym that want to go out and battle.”

Mehlville will be back in action on Dec. 20 with a home contest against Rockwood Summit.