(Griswold, IA) – The winter break helped a few teams take a step back and advise on how the season has been going so far overall. For Griswold, the break helped the team get together for team bonding which really will help out on the court which was shown in a study by the University of Southern Maine. That study showed that, “Teams that have positive team culture develop on-court cohesion and trust that allows for sports strategy to be executed in a way that promotes success for the team as a whole.” Griswold has only utilized that culture to get better over the break.
Despite their 51-42 loss to Fremont-Mills on Tuesday, the team has continued to be selfless with the basketball. So far this season, the Tigers are led by Peyton Cook and Bode Wyman who average 12.7 and 11.4 points respectively. These two are the main keys on this Griswold team and always make sure to keep their teammates involved in a team effort rather than an individual effort.
Rather than keeping things the same for Griswold, they’ve been changing up their look for January. While not getting further into discussion on this new look, expect Griswold to move the ball quicker and more efficiently while playing tighter defense to close out the gaps and pull in rebounds. Griswold also has the talent to do it defensively with Hogan Hook underneath the basket as the 6’3 junior has been a key in grabbing boards this season with 7.2 rebounds per game.
The Tigers have come out of the break with a tough week of basketball. After the game against Fremont-Mills on Tuesday, the Tigers have back-to-back home matchups against Lenox and Essex. Both teams match up with Griswold statistically as all teams are shooting just around 32% from the field or better so far this season. These are crucial games that could determine the path for Griswold throughout January.
Griswold hosts both Lenox on Thursday and Essex on Friday with both tipoffs at 7:30 p.m. KSOM 96.5 will be live for the Friday broadcast against Essex while live-streaming on Western Iowa Today TV. Zach Collins and Austin West will return to the booth with the pregame show after the girls’ postgame show around 7:15 p.m.
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