Cache — The Duncan Demon basketball teams will have the majority of this week to sit back and reflect on the opening week of the season after wrapping up play in the Cache Festival Saturday.
The Demons dropped their first game of the season, falling to Burkburnett 89-78. Duncan’s depth was tested in a game against a team that returned everyone from a Texas Class 4A regional finalist from last season.
“They were as athletic as we are and 12 deep,” Duncan coach Mikel Davison said. “In the 32 years that I have coached, it was the fastest-paced game that I have been in. We had good scoring, the biggest problem was we didn’t stop to control the pace. We played the game that they had the personnel for.
“We played extremely hard. It was one of those games you hate to lose. In two or three weeks, the problems that we had will be fixable. But you need these games to see where you are at.”
Duncan fell behind early in the first quarter and rallied to pull within 22-18 at the end of the quarter. The Demons trailed 42-38 at the end of the half but lost ground in the third as Burkburnett surged to a 68-56 lead.
Jared Griffin led Duncan in scoring with 17. Jackson Stone had 16 and Dylan Dismuke finished with 14. Also scoring in double figures was Ryan Cox with 13 and Domonique Petties with 11.
“The scoring was really balanced and everybody did things well,” Davison said. “We just have a massive learning curve. We need to recognize what we are doing and why we are doing it.”
During the time off, Davison will go about the process of developing more depth, particularly at point guard where the Demons are thin behind Ryan Cox.
“We have problems in our rotation,” Davison said. “We need some kids to come off the floor for a rest.
“Tyler Gay getting hurt is affecting us. The biggest need is a back-up point guard and we need to have our point guard settle down and get him some help on the floor.”
Overcoming inexperience is also high on Andrew McClung’s list of to-do things after the Lady Demons dropped to 0-3 with a 46-42 loss to Lawton Eisenhower.
Turnovers and free throw shooting continued to haunt Duncan as it turned the ball over 32 times and shot 5-of-17 from the line in the loss.
“We forced 26 turnovers on Eisenhower, 16 of which were steals,” McClung said. “That is not the case with us. We are shuffling our feet, not catching the ball or throwing it over people’s head. It is little turnovers that shouldn’t be happening. It’s stuff they can work on and fix.”
Turnovers have been a consistent problem for the Lady Demons, who have given the ball away over 20 times in all three games.
“I know they are trying,” McClung said. “We had girls beside themselves in the locker room after the game, upset they had lost and that’s good. I would rather see that than them not caring if they lost. We are beating ourselves but we will get there.”
Following their game, the Lady Demons stayed over at the Cache Festival to watch Cache take on Anadarko in a battle of No. 1 vs. No. 2 in Class 4A.
“One of the best things that we saw was the intensity,” McClung said. “It was good for our girls to see that. From start to finish, they didn’t let up.”
Duncan will be in action on Friday when it hits the road to take on Ada.
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