Drawing a moral victory from a closely fought 35-31 loss to the New Braunfels Unicorns Tuesday at the Lobo Den may be cliché for Lehman Lobo girls basketball coach James Halatin.

With the return of Janessa Grogan, who missed four games due to injury, Halatin believed the game provided a barometer to where the Lobo program is heading.

“You hate to say the cliché about a learning experience from a loss, but it fits the mold,” Halatin said. “It shows us right there we’re on the cusp of doing things that can help us be competitive in district play.”

Success on offense was propogated by senior guards Meghan Zuniga and Crystal Montoya, who the Lobos rely on for a majority of the offense. Zuniga finished with a team high 14 points in the game.

Grogan’s return added a third option for the Lobo scoring attack.

(photo by Tracy Stirman)

“Getting her back in a game that was tight and nip-and-tuck throughout, it was a tough game to go back to and go full bore,” Halatin said. “Once she gets her legs underneath her, she’ll be our third scorer.

However, Halatin said the Lobos are trying to put people in “the right places” and find additional threats on offense beyond Zuniga and Montoya.

“While they’re playing their butts off, they don’t get a whole lot of rest. We need to rest their legs. It’s going to be a long season.”

Issues on offense arose Tuesday as the Lobos struggled to score points. Halatin said New Braunfels did a “good job of doing what they do and executing” in the first half.

Familiarity with the in-place system allowed New Braunfels to play “free”, Halatin said.

The Lobos, however, continue to learn how to play in Halatin’s new system. They utilized a different approach on offense Tuesday, but Halatin said it wasn’t fluid, as the team wasn’t used to it.

“We’re getting there, but you can see we’re thinking too much instead of just playing,” Halatin said. “We don’t trust (the system) because we haven’t been around it long enough.”

While the Lobo offense struggled, the defense clamped down and limited New Braunfels in the final 16 minutes of the ball game.

Halatin lauded the Lobos’ effort in the game.

“It was good to show what we can do and what we need to tighten up,” Halatin said.

Continuing to become “better students of the game” is what the Lobos “need to be,” Halatin said.

Lobo players are watching and assessing their clips online and are learning from them. However, Halatin said the Lobos are still tense when they play and are “herky-jerky” at times on the court.

“Court awareness and things that should come natural at this point aren’t natural yet,” he said.

Lehman will get a chance to continue to progress as they co-host the Hays CISD classic tournament this weekend.

“What we love about tournaments is they’ll show us some things maybe we haven’t seen, and how we can adjust to what they’re trying to do to us,” Halatin said.