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Craig played without Nolan Duffy (visiting a college campus for football) and Jamar Jenkins, who is out for the foreseeable future with a shoulder injury. In addition, Malachi Schoonover and Grant Lindau weren’t available.

“The kids who played the most last year obviously played the best,” Hoag said. “But the other kids did fine. It helps you learn what you have to work on, that’s the biggest part of it.”

Playing more physically and keeping the lane open more are two things Hoag said the team can improve on.

“We came back in every game,” Hoag said. “I would say our thing is you have to be competitive every possession, and I think they showed that. I told them afterwards, ‘We were playing with great urgency in the last five minutes. We have to develop that urgency in the 15 minutes of the half before that.’”

Hoag partially attributed the lack of urgency to the team being thin, so players received a hefty dose of minutes.

“It didn’t surprise me that Nathan (Daskam), Keyon’Dre Thornton and Dru (DeGraaf) all played really well,” Hoag said. “I thought Jonah Sookraj did a good job and Jayvon Davis and Griffin Roth — those three guys I thought did a nice job.”

It was a similar day for the Vikings.

“Overall, we did a lot of good things,” Bredesen said. “Rebounding is going to be an issue. We need to be much more aggressive. I thought that as we got tired our press became ineffective. One thing about who we’re going to have to be this year is we’re going to have to put full-court pressure on people.”

Bredesen said he noticed growth in his players too from last season.

“Javonte (Johnson) made a lot of good plays,” Bredesen said. “Especially against Franklin, who, again, is going to probably be the favorite to win its league and a top 10 fringe team all year.”

Bredesen also said the trio of Henry Simmons, Joe Trumpy and Carter Salas played well on the court.

“Joe Trumpy made a lot of shots for us,” Bredesen said. “I think we do a lot of things that are good and much improved over last year. We just need to continue to get a little bit more physical. Size is going to be kind of a barrier all year.”

The Cougars host Milton on Wednesday, Nov. 26, at 7:15 p.m. The Vikings start their season Saturday, Nov. 29, at 2 p.m., when they take on Kenosha Indian Trail at Racine Case.{/div}