After a tough stretch including Manhasset and South Side, the Clarke boys’ basketball squad is looking to bounce back to the regularly scheduled program.
It’s going to entail learning at every corner, not simply how to win, but to be better players.
“That was probably the toughest back-to-back in our schedule, probably in the county,” Rams head coach Joe Hasbrouck said. “I was really happy with the way we competed against them, one of our themes going in is trying to work hard and compete against teams where you’re probably considered the underdog.”
It’s part of a larger message Hasbrouck has about making a learning opportunity out of anything. “When you don’t have a lot to lose, you can play for what you can get out of it, whether it’s confidence or some chemistry or some toughness or anything like that,” he explained.
Hasbrouck maintains a glass-half-full approach and urges the same for his athletes.
“I think you learn more from your losses, usually,” he said, before detailing what went right and wrong with his players in a 70-40 loss at Manhasset Jan. 5. “We competed really well for the majority of the game, we played tough, we were playing at full-speed whether it was tight or when it broke open a little bit.”
He also recognized that in subsequent games, consistency was something the Rams needed a refresher on.
“I can tell, throughout the Manhasset game, [the players] continued to play with confidence despite the score,” Hasbrouck explained.
After a 67-33 loss to South Side Jan. 8, Hasbrouck talked with the rest of the Rams how much the work that lies ahead of them he deemed “fixable,” listing examples such as wanting increased energy or communication or toughness on defense and transition.
The proof was in the pudding, that the recipe for success is perfected after losses as much as after wins.
A direct example would be when Clarke defeated Carey, 45-41, Dec. 19 for its first conference win. In it, Aayan Mansi had a team-high 18 points, including three shots from beyond the arc. Kai Destine poured in 12 points, including a pair of threes. Justin Montez had 8 points and led the team in rebounds with 11. Yaya Segura put up 5 points and 6 rebounds, and Zachary Barsuakas had two points with 7 assists and a team-leading 4 assists.
“Carey was a good win for us,” Hasbrouck said. “We played really hard and we’d been on the road a lot, so that was one of our few home games throughout December. And we played as a unit. We had the guys share the ball, we had guys play tough on defense, we executed plays when we needed to, so that was a nice win.”
Hasbrouck was especially happy with the fact Clarke outscored Carey 18-12 in the third quarter, extending a 3-point lead at halftime to a 9-point lead entering the fourth.
“It was nice to see us come out with intent and purpose and dominate,” he said. “We came out in the second half and really executed what we talked about.”
Now it’s up to the Rams (4-6 overall, 1-4 in Conference A-V) to continue practicing and execute what’s drilled in the home gym, with a trip to Elmont this Friday looming.