The Community R-6 boys had a bumpy end to their regular season but hope more positivity is in the near future.

Community R-6 vs Cairo Photo Gallery

On Tuesday at home, the Trojans lost their final game before districts to Central Activities Conference foe Cairo 78-38 as they struggled all night long with Cairo’s defensive pressure and varied scoring. The Bearcats (16-9, 8-1 CAC) had four finish in double figures and had nine score points.

Head coach Tad Shotten said Community’s second game against Cairo displayed how much progress the program still needs to make despite improving from 8-18 and 2-8 overall and conference records to 13-13 and 5-5 this season.

“Even though we’re a varsity team, we’re still learning,” Shotten said. “We still have some really raw guys that have only really played two years of competitive basketball. The lack of experience shows and the lack of depth for sure hurts us.”

Community and Cairo were both struggling early in the game as neither team scored a field goal until around the 4:30 mark when Cairo’s Bryce Chrisman lifted the lid off the rim. The Trojans’ first bucket, meanwhile, was with almost a minute left in the first quarter as Gavin Allen drained a 3-pointer to make it 15-3 Cairo after one quarter.

Allen led Community with 15 points and six rebounds, Mason Carroll followed with 11 points, and Tucker Robnett had eight points and two 3-pointers. Cairo was led by 25 points from Logan Head, including his 1,000th career point, 13 points from Ryan Tracy, and 10 points each from Hayden Holman and Dalton Taylor.

The Trojans were aware of Cairo’s press after its efficacy was made clear in their previous matchups with the Bearcats. Still, the Community offense seemed discombobulated as passes sailed out of bounds or into Cairo’s hands.

“That was our biggest point of emphasis going into tonight — can we handle their pressure?” Shotten said. “We’re not the best at communicating. It goes back to the experience. Sometimes, we’re thinking too much instead of reacting and playing. It’s being put in those situations over and over.”

Shotten said quickness is also essential in combating defensive pressure and talented teams in the conference like Cairo and New Franklin. After completing Shotten’s second regular season with the program, he said more progress has to be made to eventually topple those teams or at least compete with them.

“Teams that play that quick — the North Callaway, the South Callaways, Cairo, New Franklin —- that’s where you want to be,” Shotten said. “Right now, we’re just not there. Our depth is not there. All those teams that I mention, they’ve got a good history. On our boys side, we don’t really have that, but I’m happy with the way we’ve grown this year.”

While the last pair of games before districts weren’t anywhere near the quality of play the Trojans want, Shotten said having the clean slate of the Class 1 District 10 Tournament in Glasgow next week can be good for the team.

Conference foe Glasgow, who defeated Community 92-42 four days before Tuesday, is the No. 1 seed while the Trojans have the No. 3 seed for their first-round matchup with Columbia Independent at 6 p.m. Feb. 20.

“Normally, when you go into districts, you want to hit the ground running. We haven’t been able to do that,” Shotten said. “I think we can make a run. I know we’re definitely capable of doing that. Hopefully, we can get that first one out of the way. It’s going to be a game-by-game thing.”