Titans look to finish strong
To Ryan Dixon and his University High School basketball teammates, Mother Nature is just another opponent standing between them and a chance to reach the playoffs.
Snowstorms wreaked havoc on a week of practice and postponed the Titans’ showdown at Ferris until next Saturday and made today’s schedule home game with East Valley weather-dependent.
“We’re still hoping to play the East Valley game Saturday,” coach Garrick Phillips said Wednesday. “The only way we postpone that game is if there’s a snowstorm that day and we call it off. If we start postponing games it’s really going to make a mess out of the last two weeks of the regular season.”
When the Central Valley School District cancels classes, it also cancels all after-school activities. In other words, no school, no basketball practice.
Dixon and his teammates refused to take canceled as a final edict.
“We really need that practice time right now,” the 6-foot-5 senior forward said. “We couldn’t practice at school with our coaches, so we got together as a team and we all went over to OZ Fitness and worked out together on our own. (Senior) Trevor Wakem kind of ran things for us, and we got some good work done.
“I think it was good for us to get out there on our own and put some things together. Even if our coaches couldn’t be there, we got our work in.”
With five wins in 16 games, the Titans are on the playoff bubble tied with Rogers, fighting for the final spot in the district playoffs. Two wins in the final four games might be enough to get the team in – might.
When the basketball season ends, Dixon will turn his attention to soccer. Last year the goalkeeper helped the Titans to the district championship with a 2-1 win over Lewis and Clark. He was almost perfect for U-Hi, finishing with eight saves as the Titans were out shot 11-6.
“We need to win three of our last four,” Dixon said. “As far as we’re concerned, that’s what we need to do. The thing is, three of those games are against teams that we beat the first time around. Ferris is a tough game for everyone, but the rest of them are games that we should win. That gives us a lot of confidence going into these games.”
Going into Saturday’s scheduled show down with the visiting Knights, U-Hi has lost six straight games, including a one-point loss to Shadle Park.
“That’s the thing that’s frustrating,” Phillips said. “We’ve shown that we can play with everyone out there. We just haven’t been able to get over the hump and win those games.”
Dixon agrees.
“I think we just have to win and build some momentum,” he said.
The Titans started the season looking to the return of Tyler Olson to add bite to the team’s offense. But the senior guard left the team after just four games.
“We were OK after Tyler left,” Dixon said. “We won our first couple games without him, but after that we kind of lost our momentum and we haven’t been able to really get it back since.”
“Ryan has been one of our most consistent kids,” Phillips said. “He’s been there for us game in and game out.”
University was at .500 after the first two games of the new year, wins at East Valley and at home against Lewis and Clark.
Dixon, who averages more than nine points per game, scored a season-high 18 points in the win over the Knights.
“We can turn this around, I know we can,” Dixon said. “And if we can get into the playoffs, anything can still happen. If you learn anything in this league, you learn that anything can happen in the playoffs. Look at Central Valley a couple of years ago – they got all the way to the state championship game by getting on a roll in the playoffs.”
Dixon said he looks no farther than himself when it comes to finding improvement.
“I’m not happy with the way I’m playing right now,” he said. “I need to pick my game up and play better. I think we all need to think that way right now.”
The extra time off, he said, should help.
“I like to spend time mentally preparing for each game,” he said. “I like to go over what I need to do and how I need to do it. It looks like I’ll have some extra time to get ready now.”