The Norwalk boys basketball team returns to action on Tuesday night against Dallas Center-Grimes, ending a two-and-a-half week holiday break.
The Warriors are 4-3 overall and 2-1 in the Little Hawkeye Conference. Their three losses have come by a total of 10 points, including back-to-back defeats at Indianola and West Des Moines Valley going into Christmas. Norwalk struggled offensively in a 37-32 loss to the Indians, then fell to the Tigers less than 24 hours later, 61-58, despite leading for all but the final 20 seconds. But the Warriors also had a four-game winning streak in December, and head coach Aaron Pelzer tells KNIA Sports that he is pretty pleased with the team’s overall start to the season.
“We’re probably, honestly, about eight plays away from being 7-0,” Pelzer said. “We’ve been in every game. I like how we’re playing. There’s some things that obviously we need to be better at, but if you would have told me beginning of the year that we’d get to four wins before Christmas, I probably would have been pretty pleased with it so I’ve tried to keep that in mind as I’m looking back and thinking about the ‘what ifs.’”
Pelzer says that the strength of the Warriors when at their best is defense, especially guarding the dribble. They have also rebounded better than he thought they might, led by seniors Grady Sigrist and Cameron Thomas. Pelzer says that the team must continue to improve on finding their offensive identity and cutting way down on the number of unforced “casual” turnovers.
Sigrist leads Norwalk in several statistical categories, including 14.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, 13 blocked shots, 12 steals and 26 free throws in 34 attempts. Thomas averages 10.1 points and 6 rebounds, followed by seniors Tim Koerselman, Kaleb Foltz and Jack Larson all scoring between 7.9 and 6.4 points a game. Larson has provided a spark off the bench, making 11 three-pointers in 23 attempts.
Coach Pelzer adds that the Warriors have made good progress during their break. They took six days off after the Valley game, scrimmaged Urbandale and have been working on improving specific areas of their game during the last week. Tuesday night’s game vs. DC-G will be played at the NPECC in Norwalk. Tip-off is set for about 7:30 p.m.