In the first home game tournament between Kansas City East High School, Olathe Northwest High School and Southwest Early College High School, DHS fell to KC East 42-36.

Before the game, head coach Matt Rice knew the threats of KC East and had a clear picture in his mind of how to beat them: to protect the paint from their point guards, seniors Xanthanus Pierro, Andreaus Sims and Dewayn Charles.

“They’re athletic and guard oriented … One of our issues is containing penetration, and they are a team who likes penetration,” Rice said.

Although in the first half KC East’s strength was undeniably their guard penetration, Rice made a key change in strategy at halftime in order to negate that advantage.

“We just talked about the difference between looking to contain and putting on pressure [on their offense]. We adjusted from just saying ‘hey we’re going to stay in front of these guys’ as opposed to just putting pressure on them. We also asked our kids who were playing off the ball to be more aggressive,” Rice said.

While DHS prepared for the strengths of KC East’s offense, they continued to have difficulty with the amount of turnovers they had per game.

Last week Smithville High School scored 37 points off of 24 DHS turnovers. Coming into the KC East game, Rice knew what he had to address.

“Taking care of the ball is our greatest weakness,” Rice said.

This proved again to be true for De Soto, as they gave up 11 turnovers in the first half. Overall, all of DHS’s turnovers gave KC East 18 points.

However, looking back, the game was characterized by a refusal to give up on both sides.

“We turned the ball over at key moments in the second half. We did things that deserved a loss, but I was proud of the guys for battling back,” Rice said.

And battle back they did. Both teams were fairly evenly matched throughout the game, which was clear due to the fact that KC East’s biggest lead was a only nine points. In the third quarter DHS scored more points than KC East and just as many points as them in the fourth, but a good second half performance was not enough to make up for their showing in the first half.

Looking forward to its next game against Excelsior Springs High School, De Soto looks to improve.

“We’ll just keep battling. I feel like we got better that second half, and that’s wall we can ask for: to get better every time we step on the court,” Rice said.