LANETT — It is still the beginning of a long season, but on Monday evening, the Springwood boys basketball team was simply outmatched by Flint River Academy.

The opponents came into Springwood’s gym and defeated the Wildcats 54-30.

“They are coached by a very good coach, and I didn’t expect anything less than that,” Springwood boys head basketball coach Drew Dorsey said. “There are some things that we have to work on. We have to make sure we are focused the entire game, and that we’re playing hard the entire game. Until we can focus and play hard, we’re not going to be able to compete the way we want to. I think we can compete and I think we can be competitive if we focus and play hard the entire game.”

Coleman Hull led the Wildcats with seven points, but Springwood’s overall offense was stalled by Flint River’s lengthy athletes sitting back in a 3-2 zone for most of the night. Flint River 6-foot-7-inch senior Jonas Ebach, a German native, blocked multiple shots and deflected many passes in the first half alone. Ebach’s presence frustrated the Wildcats so much, Springwood senior Trent Craft said “man, you’re so tall” after the Flint River athlete deflected his pass out of bounds before heading back on defense.

In the second half, the Wildcats showed great ball movement around the perimeter but were very hesitant to attack the Flint River zone.

“We’re just a little bit timid,” Dorsey said. “A lot of these guys are playing major minutes at the varsity level and really, outside of Coleman, nobody played a ton of minutes last year. They’re getting used to playing against some big, strong guys, and very good teams. All of that stuff is going to eventually work itself out. We’re just experiencing some growing pains right now.”

On the offensive end, Ebach only scored seven points, but 6-foot-4-inch Mateja Milak, a Serbian native, showcased his wide-range of athleticism on the night, finishing with 18 points. Some of the attempted dunks from both players included an inbound alley-oop to Ebach and baseline contested attempt from Milak. None of the plays that drew “oohs” from the crowd were completed.

The matchup was the final game on day one of the Johnny’s Pizza Basketball Classic at Springwood School.

The Wildcats have a quick turnaround and return to action today at 4:45 p.m. EST. against Calvary Christian School.

“We’re very fortunate to put on a tournament, and we thank Johnny’s Pizza in West Point,” Dorsey said. “They’re sponsoring the whole tournament, and we have some other game sponsors. They make it possible for us to have this tournament so we can have our alumni come back and watch. It’s really cool to see the old girls players and the old boys players. We even have some students come back who didn’t even play sports, but they want to watch the ball game at Springwood. It’s cool to see them.”