The 2011-2012 season has certainly been one of improvement for the Apalachee High School boys basketball team.
After posting just one victory for all of last season, the Wildcats enter the second portion of the subregion schedule with a 2-3 record. Coach Kevin Morris, like most coaches, is pleased by his team’s improvement, but would also like to see additional progress.
“We are in the middle of the pack right now in the subregion,” said Morris, whose team was off Tuesday. “No one is winless and no one is undefeated. It’s really anybody’s title right now to take in the subregion.”
AHS recorded a 50-48 win Friday against Clarke Central and in the process continued to travel down the road of improvement.
“We did a good job of extending our defense,” Morris said. “We played a full court man-to-man. Cameron (Blakely) and Rakim (Peters) had their best game of the season working together. Overall, I think we are coming together as a team. You can see glimpses of things starting to click. You see it on possessions here and there where we are doing good things and are doing the right things.”
The Wildcats always show great physical effort, their coach said. Now, Morris would like for the mental approach to games to equal that physical effort given game in and game out.
AHS will host Flowery Branch Friday and travel to WBHS Saturday.
The game with WBHS was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was moved to Saturday due to the expected larger crowd.
“We’ll take a day off this week and look to get our legs back under us,” Morris said Sunday. “When you get toward the end of the season, you want to make sure you have a proper amount of energy.”
Injury-wise, Austin Harrison is out with a broken finger while teammate Ronald Pettis missed Saturday’s game with Cedar Shoals with a hip injury.
Pettis could return to action this weekend, Morris said.
“Having them out hurts us in practice as well,” Morris said. “They are post players and it hurts our numbers and ability to work on things with them not in there.”
