Returning to the boards following the holiday break, Pawnees’ Coyotes found themselves lacking in their first taste of action, but made up for it in a second weekend outing.

On Friday night, the Coyotes took some licks from the Fleming Wildcats coming up on the short end of a 50-38 score.

"We didn’t play hard enough underneath, getting out-rebounded by a wide margin in this game," Pawnee head coach Tim Brunelle said. "Fleming did a great job of getting inside position throughout the game."

Brunelle said concentration at the foul line was a problem area for the Coyotes, as they hit only four of 13 tries, and "missed the front end of five one and ones."

"That is the same as turning the ball over five more times," Brunelle said. "You cannot win ballgames missing that many free throws and getting out-hustled on the boards like we did."

Coyotes high scorers for the game were Brad Durst with 18 and Ryan Burson with 10.

The Coyotes turned it around on Saturday taking a bite out of the Northridge C. Grizzlies, 53-42.

"We had a size advantage in this game, and were able to do a better job of rebounding than we did Friday night," Brunelle said. "Our defense was better also, so I thought we made some improvement."

Brunelle said the Grizzlies are a young team which played very well and gave the Coyotes a tough game.

Brunelle said Durst worked extremely hard rebounding and scoring inside for Pawnee.

"We need to work that hard as a team, especially rebounding," Brunelle added.

Durst again was the games high scorer and put up a double-double with 16 points and 16 rebounds. Burson and Wes Helgeson were the other two hot hands finding the net for 14 and 10 points respectively.

Up next for the Coyotes are weekend contests with Prairie on Friday and Pine Bluffs on Saturday. Both games are on the Pawnee home court.