The Siloam Springs boys basketball team was missing several key players at Golden Eagle team camp at John Brown University on Friday, which opened up an opportunity for others on the court.
Those players were back with the Panthers on Saturday at Pittsburg (Kan.) State's team camp and the difference was noticed, according to head basketball coach Tim Stewart.
"We were really pleased with the kids and how hard they worked on both days," Stewart said. "We were missing five kids on the first day, and on Saturday we had everybody."
The Panthers went 2-1 at JBU, losing to Grove, Okla., before winning the next two games against Jay and Dover.
Siloam Springs was missing its leading scorer from last year in 6-foot-6 rising senior Kyle Snavely, who was at Boys State along with seniors Kyle Comiskey and Johnathan Heinrichs. Also missing were senior guard Jordan Norberg and sophomore guard Marquan Sorrells, who were both with the Panthers football team at a team camp in Springdale.
All of those players were back on Saturday as the Panthers went 3-1 at Pittsburg State.
Siloam Springs lost its opening game to Pittsburg High School, a game Stewart said came down to "a late game scenario and ended up losing a close one that should have been won."
The Panthers then defeated Missouri schools Webb City, Neosho and Carl's Junction to close out team camp.
"We learned a lot," Stewart said. "We rotated the lineups and rotated players and saw a lot of different combinations and saw a lot of everybody."
Stewart said the biggest realization in the two team camps was how much of an impact Snavely has when he's in the lineup.
"Snavely wasn't there Friday and he makes a big difference for us," Stewart said. "He did a good job of holding down the middle and scoring and rebounding. He really had a good showing. Kyle is going to be a big difference maker for us in the middle."
Stewart said Snavely left Pittsburg State on Saturday and went on to Missouri Southern State's individual camp on Sunday.
"So he had a busy weekend," Stewart said. "We expect a lot of good things out of Kyle this year."
Stewart also said guards Tyler Newton, Luke Loveless and Caleb Lampton along with forwards Carlson Wakefield and Noah Karp played strong at times over the course of the two team camps.
"Those guys are going to have to play big minutes for us this year," Stewart said.
The Panthers will have four more practices over the next week and will play at one more team camp at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., on June 18-20.
Stewart said the team will play eight or nine games in three days at ORU.
"We're in the large-school division there, so we'll see some really good teams and also have some time to have some team bonding," Stewart said. "It's highly competitive. We went last year and the boys really liked it and wanted to go back."
The ORU team camp will wrap up a three-week period of practices and workouts for the team. They'll take three weeks off from June 21 to July 8 before finishing July with practices and team-building events.
Stewart said the team will get the entire month of August off.
"We try to stay with three weeks on, three weeks off, where they're able to have some free time," he said.
The Panthers are coming off an 11-16 season in 2014-15, which included a nine-game losing streak to end the season.
Sports on 06/10/2015