Rams benefit from team unity through hot start

Prior to the season, Scott City coach Kerry Thompson treated the term "potential" with the respect normally afforded a stick of dynamite.

It's the type of thing, if not handled carefully, that can blow up in a person's face.

So far the only thing exploding in Scott City have been the Rams, who are wearing the seventh seed and a label of "dangerous" in the seMissourian Christmas Tournament.

The Rams, 11-14 a year ago, opened their season with a string of victories, including a recent 70-62 win over Oran, the tournament's fifth seed.

Thompson still is handling "potential" with kid gloves.

"You want to get rid of the potential label," Thompson said. "We haven't got rid of it yet, but we're starting to."

What the Rams have done thus far is shake a disappointing season -- Thompson's first as head coach, after a string of 20-win seasons. The year contained several key injuries that made a young squad even younger.

"We're real excited, and the community has been coming out and is excited," Thompson said. "We're getting back to the Scott City basketball that has been here. There's a long way to go, but we're happy with the start we're off to."

The Rams have been using balanced scoring, accurate shooting, strong defense and contributions from 10 players to turn around its fortunes.

In their first four games, the Rams had four different leading scorers. Senior forward D.J. Walton, junior forward Andy Beck, junior point guard Jeremy Schlosser and junior center Tyler Ward all have led the way in scoring. The Rams also had at least three players in double figures in each of the games.

But Thompson pointed to a recent scoreless evening by the 6-foot-8 Ward to explain his team's success. Ward pitched in with seven rebounds, six block shots and three assists.

"That's the way the team has played," Thompson said. "Our unity is real good."

The Rams also have been shooting around 50 percent from the field and upgraded last year's 54 percent free-throw shooting to 74 percent.

While Thompson has been pleased with his team's play, he's also looking for improvement. On the day following the win over Oran -- on the road in its Scott Mississippi Conference opener -- Thompson addressed the issue with his team.

"We don't want that to be the biggest win of the year," Thompson said. "We're not playing perfect basketball. We still have a lot of room for improvement. If we're playing our best basketball now, we're in trouble."

Scott City is looking for bigger wins in the Christmas tournament, where its using the seventh seed as motivation to prove something. But Thompson is wary of the Rams' first-round opponent, 10th-seeded Meadow Heights, a team that has approached 100 points in a couple of games already.

"Any team that scores the way they do is dangerous," Thompson said.

jbreer@semissourian.com

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