Coach Brad Dickey says his Trinity Lutheran boys basketball team is not lacking in hard work.

It just needs better execution, he said, after the Cougars lost 50-26 to Hauser in the Bollinger Athletic Complex on Saturday night.

Dickey used the football term “field position” as far as what his team needs to improve on.

“We were talking about field position, gaining ground against your opponents, pushing them further away from the goal and us penetrating closer to the goal,” he said.

“I thought Kowan Gross handling the ball in the high post was an advantage to us. We talked about Peyton Pollert getting those backside (three) rebounds. Those were positive signs. All our guards are working very hard and sweating hard out there when they play. They want their ball skills to get a little better, and their foot speed can improve. Those are things we’re going to practice hard when we’re in the weight room and doing our conditioning at practice.”

Trinity got off to a good start when Luke Coomler hit his team’s first shot for a 2-0 lead. However, the Cougars made only one of seven the remainder of the period, by Gross, to trail 12-5.

Hauser’s Ledger Gelfius, a 6-foot sophomore, used his quickness to get open from the perimeter as he made four baskets, including two 3-pointers, for 10 points in the opening period

Gelfius added two more 3s in the second when the Jets outscored the Cougars 17-7 to lead 29-12 at the break.

Trinity shot 5-for-19 from the floor in the first half, then saw the shooting cool off even more in the third period — 1-for-10 for two points by Kole Shewmaker — for a 41-14 score going into the fourth period.

That improvement Dickey was looking for came in the fourth period when Pollert became aggressive and hit 4-for-4 from the line, Shewmaker added a 3-pointer and Gross, Levi Froedge and Levi Pottschmidt also added free throws in that quarter.

Trinity shot only four free throws during the first three periods, then attempted 10 in the fourth.

Shewmaker topped the Cougars (0-3) with seven points, and Gross scored six. Gross, Pollert and Coomler tied for Trinity rebound honors with four each.

Gelfius finished with 18 points. Owen McIntyre, a 6-foot-4 senior, prevented the Cougars from getting to the rim as much as Dickey would have liked, and he had seven points and eight rebounds.

“We want to play man (defense), but we want to support each other smart, and again, that’s a field position problem,” he said.

“When you can’t stand in front of the very first player, it throws you in a bad rotation, so we actually switched into double-teaming because we were double-teaming anyway. But instead of double-teaming at the rim, we started double-teaming at the half-court line on purpose, and that was a little better. That helped our attitudes a little bit. It helped us to see some of the opportunities, so hopefully, the kids can grow from that experience.”

Dickey is looking for a good week of practice in preparation for Friday’s game at Southwestern (Shelby) and Saturday’s home game against West Washington.

“Our guys are all in a weight class,” he said. “They’re starting to do very well in there. We’ve got a sprint routine developing, and we’re going to improve our conditioning, and we’ve got some jump exercises because they want to get where they can swing from the rim.”

Box score

Jets 50, Cougars 26

Trinity;5;7;2;12;—;26

Hauer;12;17;12;9;—;50

Trinity Lutheran (0-4): Kole Shewmaker 3 0-0 7, Kowan Gross 2 1-2 6, Luke Coomler 2 0-0 4, Levi Pollert 0 4-4 4, Levi Froedge 0 2-4 2, Eli Ballard 1 0-0 2, Levi Pottschmidt 0 1-4 1, Totals 8-14 26.

Hauser (2-2): Ledger Gelfius 7 0-0 18, Gavin Keller 4 0-0 8, Owen McIntyre 3 0-0 7, Alex Cord 2 2-3 6, Skylar Gill 1 2-2 5, Sam Taylor 1 1-2 3, Taylen Absher 1 1-2 3, Totals 19 6-9 50.

3-point goals: TL 2 (Shewmaker, Gross), H 5 (Gelfius 4, Gill, McIntyre).

Rebounds; TL 18 (Gross 4, Pollert 4, Coomer 4), H 26 (McIntyre 8)

Turnovers; TL 10, H 11

Junior varsity

Hauser 68, Trinity 50

Trinity Lutheran: Evan Christopher 18, Jack Stuckwisch 14, Kade Gillaspy 8, Trey Owen 6, Josh Conrad 3, Jake Holland 1.