HICKORY, N.C. — The Catawba Valley Community College men's basketball team closed out 2017 with its third-straight win on Tuesday.
The Red Hawks defeated visiting Wake Tech 89-84, earning their first conference victory of the season.
"We've won three in a row, so there's positives there, but we're certainly not anywhere close to the team we are capable of being," said CVCC men's basketball head coach Bryan Garmroth. "We just don't play with focus and intensity."
Sophomore post player Steve Ruszala paced the Red Hawks (6-6, 1-2 in Region X) in Tuesday's victory, scoring 20 points — 18 of those coming in second half.
"He turned it up," Garmroth said of Ruszala. "If he hadn't, we don't win. I think he probably could of had 28 or 30 points if they'd have called all the fouls when he was shooting. If he didn't step up, it's pretty ugly for us."
Despite his team's win streak, Garmroth knows improvements need to be made going forward heading into his team's next game on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018 at Bryant & Stratton (Va.) at 7 p.m.
"Every day it just seems like it's a struggle getting it to work," Garmroth said. "I'm sitting here dwelling on the negatives. The positives are we went from 3-6 to 6-6 and we've seen players like Will Boyd and Victor Tshiona improve. We're making progress. I can't say enough about going from 3-6 to 6-6, but we've got to learn how to focus in practice and in games. We just lose it."
