Steers close non-district with loss

Shooting continues to be a problem for the Steers. Getting shots has not been the struggle, making open shots has held the Steers back all season. Those struggles continued Tuesday night and were compounded by turnovers as the Steers closed the non-district schedule with a 62-30 loss at Rider.

The Raiders opened the game with an 18-7 advantage and never looked back. The Steers responded with their highest-scoring quarter in the second with 10 points. It allowed the Steers to cut into the deficit by one point but could get no closer.

The Steers attempted 43 shots, hitting 10 of them for 23.3%. On the other end of the court, Rider shot 24-55 or 48.2%. Although the Steers secured 14 offensive rebounds, they could only turn that into seven second-chance points. Overall, the Steers were outrebounded 36-27.

On both ends of the court, the young Steers have shown improvement. The team moves the ball and finds open shots. Playing from behind lends itself to more turnovers and that was the case Tuesday night. The Steers gave up 33 turnovers while the Raiders took advantage with 31 points on turnovers. That makes up all but one point of the winning margin by the Raiders. Of the 33 turnovers, 15 were via steals by the Raiders.

For the rest of the story, see the Jan. 15 edition of The Graham Leader.