Lady Pirates 'buy in' to Perez's philosophies

The Polson Lady Pirates basketball team is a work in progress for newly appointed coach Juan Perez.

Perez, who guided his women’s team at Salish Kootenai College to five AIHEC titles, is looking to implement his same philosophical approach that made the Lady Bison’s successful to the Lady Pirates.

After playing two games at the Tip-Off classic Missoula, Perez said he has already seen positive changes in his team in his first year coaching Lady Pirates basketball.

“I think the girls for the most part are still learning what they can and can’t do,” Perez said. “Kealyn got some good looks, ran the court and was able to get some pretty easy layups. Our girls were aggressive and attacked the basket. Kind of what we want is to be able to attack the basket.”

Perez said he felt the reason the Pirates were able to stay competitive throughout the game was several changes they made in their approach towards the basket.

“I think that we’ve made some positive changes going into the game and it shows,” Perez said. “The changes that we made really showed up in their play and also showed in how they conducted themselves on the court. They made pretty positive advances in their game.”

The Lady Pirates dropped their first two games of the season at the Tip-Off falling to Corvallis 50-40 and Butte Central 44-25.

“Butte hit some big shots and we weren’t answering some of the 3-pointers,” Perez said. “They really opened up the game a little bit more. They are a good team and we struggled a bit after the first quarter. We had a couple of the girls that were late getting there because they were doing their ACTs. We led after the first quarter and struggled in the second quarter. We didn’t score after the second quarter and we just couldn’t find the basket. We were down by seven at the half without scoring in the second quarter. Defensively, the girls worked hard and I think that really helped us.”

Perez, who is experiencing his first-ever year at the high school coaching ranks, said he is still learning about Class A competition.

“I still don’t know much about the teams and that is what we are looking for is to stay on course with what we’ve been working on,” Perez said. “Hopefully, the things we learning will work for any team and that we play because the girls are aggressive and smart and we get better with each game. Hopefully when we step on the court Friday against Whitefish better than we were against Butte Central and we played well Saturday and I thought we had a really good game Friday. We just need to make some adjustments and work on some things that we are struggling with. Blocking is one of them and we are looking forward to getting back on the court.”

During the Missoula Tip-Off, Perez said he was able to evaluate some of the conference’s competition.

“When I saw Columbia Falls play, they looked like they were so much better (then the rest of the competition in the tournament),” Perez said. “The girls worked hard and Columbia Falls is going to be one of the teams to beat. Ronan and Columbia Falls both looked strong. They looked impressive and from what I’ve seen so far, the Western A conference is going to be a very tough conference.”

Thus far, Perez said he liked how his team was performing.

“We are liking the fact that they are going out there and playing basketball,” Perez said. “We don’t want them to be just robots on the court. We want them to come down the court and set something. We are trying to be basketball players, make adjustments (during the game), and take what (opposing defenses) are giving them.”