Janesville Parker’s 68-44 girls basketball loss to Sun Prairie East on Tuesday played out in a similar way to the Vikings’ game against Madison Memorial on Saturday.
Parker (2-15 overall, 2-12 Big Eight) fell into a 41-20 hole at halftime. After the break, the team came together and played shot for shot against the Cardinals. The Cardinals won the second half by just a single point, 25-24, but the damage had been done.
Harper Brandenburg led the Vikings in scoring with nine points. On offense, Parker hit five 3-pointers.
The rebuilding program has seen bright spots and improvement this season. At this point in the year, the Vikings are now focusing on opening their games with the same second-half intensity in recent game and not get themselves in a hole.
Against Sun Prairie East (7-11, 6-8), Parker coach Ryan Tyrrell saw continued improvement in the team’s inside-out offense.
The Vikings moved the ball well on Tuesday, he said. On one play in particular, the Vikings had the ball at the top of the key. Seeing that Sun Prairie was swarming Addison Miller in the paint, they kicked it out to guard Mia Riley in the corner.
From there, the Cardinals’ defense closed out on Riley, who saw her chance to get the ball inside to Miller, who converted the look into an easy basket.
“They didn’t just force it into Miller and they used their eyes to pull people in,” Tyrrell said. “They could move the ball to the side and then use that movement to inside. That was a thing of beauty. And there were several times where those actions work the way that they were supposed to. I feel like we’re starting to get more out of that.”
On Friday, the Vikings will host Madison East at 7:15 p.m.
