The varsity boy’s basketball team experienced a breakthrough in confidence and developed a sense of ownership of their team’s success.

First-year player and varsity team member, junior Andrew Flores believed that the team’s mentality shifted once the players realized that if they worked as a team, they could win.

“(Before Texas), we didn’t really care and we weren’t taking things seriously until we realized we were a good team and we started to focus more,” Flores said. “Our practices have been more intense lately and (we’ve had) more communication.”

Flores also believed that, as a whole, players held themselves more accountable and focused on crucial parts at practice.

“I feel like we’re more focused on the little things, stretching warm ups, things like that,” Flores said. “We’re just focused more on our own.”

In addition to drills, players watched films and practiced plays to develop strategies.

Varsity Basketball Coach, Brandon Parker was proud of his team’s efforts leading up to the tournament in Bartlesville on Jan. 9-10.

“So we start with, obviously, practice, and then game film,” said Parker. “So we’d like to go through the game film and our opponents in advance, then while we’re there we can go scout in-person when they play right before us.”

Getting an idea of how opposing teams played, helped them to develop a strategy against the team. The players anticipated what their opponent’s strengths were and where they were leaving openings or chances for the team to get the ball.

In the first game, the Millers played against Broken Arrow and lost with a final score of 67- 50. The second game against Tulsa McLain, ended in a win at 71-63. And the final game was back-and-forth against Bartlesville and ended in a close loss at 51-50.

Throughout the final game, the teams traded points. Bartlesville scored with 15 seconds left on the clock, the Millers then scored with 10 seconds remaining.

“We know we’re an underdog team, and we just kind of approach the season and we’re embracing that personality, saying that these games are just about getting better, and then the real season starts in the playoffs,” said Parker.

Flores felt that other teams looked down on the Millers because of their record and films from early in the season.

“I felt like after the Texas tournament, we did really good and that gave us more confidence,” Flores said. “We brought what we did in Texas over here to Oklahoma I feel like once Ethan started talking more everyone else joined in a started being more vocal on and off the court, So that kind of helped and helped everyone become a leader as well.”