Melcher-Dallas’ boys’ basketball team finished with a 10-12 record last year, but Head Coach Jim Wells believes the team is better than the record shows. The reason why is because they need to play complete games this season.

 

“I think you gotta play all four quarters,” Wells stated. “We have played a lot of times we would get two quarters, two and a half quarters but never all four quarters.”

 

There were four games decided by single digits last year, and the Saints went 2-2, with losses to Mormon Trail and Diagonal and wins over Twin Cedars and Wayne.

 

“Late in the season last year, we took on a team that was 12-5 and we were 8-10 or 7-10 and we went to their place and we played four quarters of basketball and walked out of there with a win by four or five points,” Wells explained. “It was a really good feeling for them and for us coaches because they played the whole game.”

 

The game Coach Wells was referring to was when the 8-10 Saints went to Colfax-Mingo, who was 11-7, and beat them, 66-56. That game included a fourth quarter in which the Saints outscored the Tigerhawks 28-13.

 

The Saints finished tied for 6th in the Bluegrass Conference last year with Diagonal and Mormon Trail with a 4-6 conference record. Last season was the third consecutive year in which the Saints finished with double-digit wins, but also the first time they finished below .500 since the 2016-17 season when they went 4-17 overall.

 

Melcher-Dallas opens the season on December 1st, where they take on Pleasantville, and the game will be broadcast on kniakrls.com on the KNIA3 stream.