Prep boys basketball: Fenwick off to 6-2 start, but seeks consistency

Fenwick High School’s boys basketball team is off to its best start in four years and leading the Greater Catholic League Coed North Division.

Veteran coach Pat Kreke said that’s all fine and good, but he believes the Falcons haven’t come close to reaching their potential.

“No matter how talented you are, you just want your kids to play well every night,” Kreke said. “We’re still trying to figure a lot of things out. We’re not playing very smart. We’re just up and down too much, and chemistry is a big factor in high school athletics.”

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Fenwick is 6-2 overall and 3-1 in the GCLC North heading into Friday night’s home game against Alter (3-7, 0-4), the two-time defending North champion.

The Falcons, who suffered a 53-49 road loss to Chaminade Julienne last weekend, haven’t been 6-2 since starting 10-2 in 2013-14. They will have nonleague contests at home against Reading on Saturday and Madeira on Tuesday before traveling to Badin next Friday.

“The team’s mentality is we’ve just got to keep improving every day,” Fenwick senior guard John Engelmeier said. “We hit a rough patch in the road facing CJ. We didn’t play with a lot of toughness, so we’re looking to overcome that and bring it vs. Alter.”

Junior forward C.J. Napier (14.6 ppg, 10 rpg) is the only double-double player in the GCLC. Senior guard David Luers (10.6) and Engelmeier (9.1) are also among the Falcons’ top scorers.

Fenwick’s last league title (shared with CJ) came in 2013-14.

“Since last year ended, our goal was to win the GCL,” Engelmeier said. “All we’ve got to do is put our confidence together and play as a unit, and I believe we’ll be very successful.”

Kreke said Napier, Engelmeier, Luers, senior forward Zach Lorei and junior guard Caleb Davis will likely be in the starting lineup against Alter.

The Falcons have quality depth as well. But Kreke said he wants to see better decision-making across the board.

“I think sometimes they try to get by on how physically talented they are and don’t think through the games,” Kreke said. “They’re getting better as far as being unselfish … I thought we were a very selfish team early.

“They have a ton of potential because we have a lot of weapons. We’re still not shooting the ball as well as I thought we would and I know that we can. I think we’ve fought our way through defensively pretty well besides Lebanon, where we just laid an egg (in a 62-44 loss).”

Engelmeier (14), Luers (13) and Napier (13) all scored in double figures in the loss to CJ (4-6, 2-2). It was Fenwick’s first game in two weeks.

“We didn’t play well, and give CJ a lot of credit,” Kreke said. “They came out and smacked us in the face. We had spurts where we responded, but we did not respond the whole game.”

The Falcons rebounded with a 65-42 win over Twin Valley South on Saturday as Napier’s 19 points and 10 rebounds led the way.

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