After a four game losing streak, coach Damon Pigrom and his young Bengals made a conscious decision to start over and have been playing inspired basketball ever since.

The Bengals traveled to Sherwood last Tuesday, with hopes of finding a rare road win against the Warriors. With 3:20 left in the game, coach Pigrom resorted to another one of his unprecedented coaching moves in efforts to end a Warrior 13-2 run. He brought in five new players, many undersized and all inexperienced.

Surprisingly, this squad cut an 11 point deficit to four. Senior guard Marcus Turner contributed eight points in just over two minutes and the Bengals appeared back in the game. Says Turner, “I tried to do what I could to give us a shot to win.” In the end, the Bengals came up short, losing 59-50.

Junior guard Eric Pugh and junior forward Jason Nwosu led the team over the Blair Blazers January 27, in a 63-44 win. Both players posted double digits in the scoring column. “We played well as a team,” says Pugh. “Hopefully this is the spark we need to do well in the playoffs.” The Bengals seemed their best in the second quarter, outscoring the Blazers 22-8 and never looking back.

Top players have been held off the court in previous games due to lack of discipline – or injury in senior guard Chad Sanders’ case. Against the Walter Johnson Wildcats January 24, frustrated coach Pigrom played only seven players. At the end of the fourth quarter with the game already out of hand, junior guard Shane Carrington fouled out of the game.

In an effort to make a statement to his team, coach Pigrom played the remainder of the game with only four players. “I’m not going to sacrifice my values just to put five players on the floor,” says coach Pigrom.

Prior to this defeat, the team suffered a tough loss to the consortium rival Paint Branch Panthers January 20. Despite efforts of 20 points from Pugh and 15 from junior guard James Wish off the bench, the Bengals fell short 48-43. A week earlier, the team lost to the Springbrook Blue Devils in a dramatic fashion. Devils’ sharp shooter senior David Brewster, ran Bengal defenders off of questionable picks late in the fourth quarter leading to a heartbreaking 56-55 Bengal loss. “We learned a lot from [that game] and we’ll be ready next time,” says Wish.

Tomorrow, the Bengals will face a Magruder Colonel crew that beat them 70-52 in the teams’ last meeting. “We need to win these next games,” says Sanders, “in order to send a message that we won’t just roll over come playoff time.”