The boys basketball team (3-4) will compete in the Van Griffith Kia tournament in Granbury this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. After going 2-2 in the Prosper Invitational last week, losing the consolation championship, the team is looking to improve on communication and clean up the “little things,” according to head coach Kyle Herrema.

“We had some communication issues defensively,” Herrema said. “From an execution standpoint, it’s not the big things that are wrong, but the little things like coming off of screens tight. It is the little execution details that we need to clean up.”

The team’s focus is also to play better together and has more confidence in each other as they go into this week’s tournament, hosted by an 8-2 Granbury team.

“When we play like a team with all our effort and listen to our coach’s game plan,  we can beat just about anyone,” senior Marlon Esteves said. “In the Granbury tournament, we will make sure we listen to one another and play hard so we can come home undefeated or be very satisfied with our effort and play.”

The Leopards faced some tough opponents in the Prosper tournament last weekend but still grabbed a 67-55 win versus last year’s 5A TAPPS state runner-up Legacy Christian. The Leopards outscored the Eagles by 12 in the fourth quarter.

“By playing better teams, it exposes us to some of the areas that we have to improve in,” Herrema said. “We are always going to play a tough schedule so that we can find ways to get better.”

However, the team was unable to come out on top in the consolation championship versus The Colony (6-2), even though they were down just two points at halftime.

“We played a great first half against The Colony,” Herrema said. “We just struggled in the second half. It’s always good to see lots of different styles of play, and so when The Colony ran something that we hadn’t seen earlier in the year, we didn’t adjust very well. We saw it, so we can adjust to it when it comes time for district play.”

Junior Luke Ledebur led the team in scoring and was named to the all-tournament team.

“Luke does a lot of things that don’t show up on the stat sheet,” Herrema said. “He was our leading scorer for the tournament, but really to me, it’s the little things that you don’t see. He puts other people in the position to be successful.”

Ledebur described his role on the team as a solid, dependable player.

“It was a great honor being named first team all-tournament,” Ledebur said. “I fed off of my team’s energy. There are guys on my team who are more of the go-to-guys when it comes to scoring, however, if coach draws up a play for me, I’m gonna go get a bucket.”