The basketball season is filled with peaks and valleys, and unfortunately, it's the latter Rugby is trying to climb out of right now.

The Panthers went into their District 11 opener on Thursday, Jan. 7 at Westhope-Newburg winners of just one of their first seven games.

Coach Mike Santjer knew his team with limited varsity play would have some growing pains. "The speed of the game has been kind of hard for us to keep pace with at times,' Santjer said. "And it's led to a lot of turnovers. Turnovers take shot attempts away and gives easy scoring opportunities to the other team. That's been an our Achilles' heel."

Despite the slow start, Santjer sees positives. The Panthers are getting good looks at the basket, but the shots are just not falling. And the team is competing hard. "The effort is there,' he notes.

The goal for Rugby is still to lock up a favorable seed come District 11 Tournament play, and that's why the focus is on playing well during this stretch of the season, especially in district games. The Panthers have six remaining district contests.

"Yes, we would have liked to carry a winning record into our district schedule, but this is where we are,' he said. "The good news is there is a lot of season left and we're confident we can get on track."

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