De Soto finds success at the Hutamaki Hardwood Classic
Both the girls’ and the boys’ basketball teams went 2-1 at the Hutamaki Hardwood Classic last week.
De Soto High School hosted its first Hutamaki Hardwood Classic, a four team round robin tournament for both the boys’ and girls’ teams last week. DHS had a decent outing, with both teams going 2-1 for the tournament.
The boys’ first home appearance against Kansas City East High School was not their finest. Throughout that game, the team struggled with turnovers that led directly to KC East points.
Even assistant coach Erik Bell acknowledged that the first game gave the team something to work with.
“The first game we could have done a lot better. Turnovers were an issue and we gave too many second chance points. If you give up sixty shots to a team and then have 25 turnovers, then it’s going to be hard to win that game,” Bell said.
However, the next games for the Wildcats were a different story, as they managed to cut down their turnovers consistently. In the last game of the tournament against Bishop Ward High School, DHS had a mere 13 turnovers as opposed to the 23 they had against KC East.
Senior Point Guard Jacob Jennings had a good outing, leading his team with 33 points in the tournament with a 52 percent field goal percentage.
“Jennings was pretty consistent,” Bell said.
Junior Cooper Hancock also had a good tournament, tying with senior Isaac Albert with 18 rebounds for De Soto.
For their next game, Bell says that they need to work on “taking care of the ball, boxing out and getting rebounds.”
The girls basketball team also had a good tournament, going 2-1 as well.
Their first game against Southwest Early College High School was not the most challenging. De Soto scored a 75 points on SWEC while only giving them 17.
Their second game against Olathe Northwest High School proved to be more difficult. ONW eventually won 52-62, but DHS managed to keep the lead until mid-way through the second quarter.
Junior Julia Johnson led the team that game, earning De Soto 13 points.
The next game against Kansas City East High School followed the same story as the SWEC game. De Soto won 82-22, maintaining a large lead for the entirety of the game.