Conifer’s boys basketball team pulled off a 63-28 win against the Alameda Pirates on Jan. 27, its second consecutive win, which brought the team to 5-9 on the season.

Standout performances included 16 points by Mason Pratt on 71% shooting from inside and 11 blocks from center Noah Bishop.

“I feel great,” Bishop said. “I'm proud of the team effort. I think that our defensive game today was just outstanding.”

Defense has been a problem for the Lobos. Getting into transition and slowing teams on fast breaks had been a major concern a few games ago.

“That part of our game was good tonight,” head coach John Raff said. “We recovered on defense much better than we had been and matched up a lot quicker. All the way around, it was very good. We held (Alameda) to 28, which is a little below their average.” 

The defense was much improved, holding Alameda’s top scorer, Eddie Dwazo, to a slightly below-average 9-point performance. Turnovers still perpetually haunt the Lobos, averaging 24.8 a game, a stat that may haunt them in the Jan. 27 game against Standley Lake. 

“I’m nervous,” Bishop said. “They are 2 and 10, but they’re good. They’ve been playing 5A schools. They’re going to be a good team.”

The pieces are fitting together better every game. The Lobos are averaging five more points per game than the first five games of the season on significantly better efficiency. The team is slowly but surely rolling out kinks on both sides of the ball, seeing turnovers drop significantly and defensive rebounds sharply increasing.

“It’s an improvement game,” Pratt said. “We’ll be ready to go.”