Despite Athens losing its third straight game by double digits, coach Mickey Cozart thought his team played well.
The only problem was the Bulldogs' shot just wouldn’t fall.
“We didn’t make shots like we normally do tonight,” Cozart said.
However, some positives can be taken from the 69-51 loss to Warren.
Warren towered over the Bulldogs on the court, and this affected their style of play by forcing them into jump shots as opposed to driving to the basket for layups.
Athens, however, was able to go head-to-head with the length that Warren had, even rebounding more than them in the first half.
In the final rebound count, Warren had one more rebound, and Athens had the advantage in offensive rebounding 11-6.
Even with the advantage in offensive rebounding, it comes back to one thing, the shooting. The Bulldogs only shot 35 percent from the field.
“I don’t know what our shooting percentage was, but it wasn’t our season average,” Cozart said.
Another positive was the improved play of Robert Dickelman. He seemed to be all over the court, something Athens needs from one its big men when they play teams like Warren.
“Robert was really upset with himself after the New Lexington game, and he’s practiced extremely hard,” Cozart said. “I looked for this kind of performance out of him tonight.”
Athens will emerge from a tough part of its schedule in which it played tough out-of-conference opponents with confidence to win the Tri-Valley Conference.
“We control our own destiny,” Cozart said. “We’ve got to take care of business out there and we’ll be fine.”
