SB Live Player Diary: Mt. Spokane's Tyson Degenhart reflects on loss to Central Valley, early season adversity

Tyson Degenhart is a junior at Mt. Spokane High School and a Boise State commit. He is the author of a player journal with Scorebook Live Washington which takes

Tyson Degenhart is a junior at Mt. Spokane High School and a Boise State commit. He is the author of a player journal with Scorebook Live Washington which takes fans inside the Wildcats' 2019-20 season. Mt. Spokane is 10-2 coming off a 58-55 loss to Central Valley on Jan. 7. Follow Degenhart on Twitter @tdeggie13.

BY TYSON DEGENHART

If you were to compare last year’s Mt. Spokane team to this year's, there are few similarities.

There are only three returners from last year’s state runner-up team. Since we reached the 2019 3A state title game, all eyes have been on us to see how we’d play without the senior class from last year.

We feel it. We try to block out any of the outside noise and focus on what we can do each game to try to come out with a victory.

With the success of the Mt. Spokane basketball program over the past two years, people in the state have started to consider us a powerhouse from the east side of the state. I would consider us to be the start of a powerhouse.

• READ | ‘Why wait?’ An inside look at Mt. Spokane forward Tyson Degenhart’s commitment to Boise State

From last year’s performance at the state tournament, we’ve shown that we can play with any team in the state. That’s a high expectation, but for the first half of the season, I think we’ve lived up to it. 

Our game versus Post Falls was a bump in the road, as was our most recent loss on Tuesday night to Central Valley.

You have to give credit where credit is due, and Post Falls and Central Valley are really good teams. In those games, we didn’t shoot the ball very well and our defense wasn’t great. Those two things don’t normally add up to a victory. I think we can really learn from our mistakes and it will help us come closer as a group as we head into 2020.

Last December, we hit adversity when we played Gonzaga Prep. They showed us how championship teams play defense and we tried to incorporate that into our team.

That loss propelled us to continue to get better and end up on a 21-game winning streak that led us to the 3A state championship game.

Each loss brings adversity to a team. The question is: how do you respond from that loss?