krobinett@journalnet.com

POCATELLO - When a coach refers to a basketball game as a good practice, it's usually not a good sign.

So it should come as little surprise that the Highland boys' basketball team lost its "good practice" to Sky View (Smithfield, Utah) 58-48 on Friday in the Rams' home opener.

"It was our ninth practice of the year, and I think we improved significantly from our first game (a 68-47 loss at Bear River)," Highland coach Chris Frost said. "But we still made too many mistakes. We're a roller-coaster ride right now."

Indeed, the Rams showed both good and bad against Sky view.

The good would be junior guard Avery Manu making seven jump shots on his way to a team-high 18 points and senior guard Brady Smith sinking two 3-pointers off the bench.

The bad would be allowing Skyview's Erik Bernston to score 20 points on nothing but layups and turning the ball over at key moments.

"We're climbing in the right direction," Manu said. "We were way better than we were two days ago. Now we've just gotta work on our defense and finishing."

Highland struggled shooting the ball early, and fell behind 29-25 at halftime but went on a nice run to start the second half and take a 33-32 lead.

Manu hit several shots during that rally, and so did senior forward Taysom Hill, who finished with 13 points.

With the lead, though, Highland's defense started to struggle. Sky View pounded the ball into Bernston, and even though he missed the majority of his shots, one of his teammates was always there to get the rebound and score anyway.

"We gave up way too many points in the paint," Frost said. "Way, way too many."

Scoring easily, Sky View took a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter and was never threatened again.

Part of that was because Highland struggled with turnovers.

"It seemed like anytime we did something good and got a turnover ourselves, we were sloppy with the ball and gave it right back," Hill said. "That's something we need to work on, but we'll get better."

Frost agreed. He hardly seemed agitated about the loss. Even though Highland is 0-2 with a home game against Minico up next on Tuesday, he understands his starting five is still trying to adjust to the hardwood after winning a state championship in football on Nov. 21.

"I don't want that to be an excuse, but we really are still in football mode," Frost said. "We've got to get our basketball legs back."