The Enid Plainsmen will head into the winter break without a win following their 68-49 loss to the Choctaw Yellow Jackets Tuesday Night at the Central National Bank Center. The Plainsmen now find themselves at 0-4. However, they will go into the intermission with an improved gut-check of where they are as a team. Head coach Paul Duncan said he was pleased with how his team played defensively against one of the top teams in their class. “When we got into full-court defense. we got into trouble,” Duncan said following the game. “But when we got into half-court defense, I was pleased with where we were.” Choctaw put the Plainsmen down early in the first quarter of the game, jumping to an early 16-4 lead. But the Plainsmen would put up a defensive stand against Choctaw in the following quarter, allowing only eight points throughout. The Plainsmen continued their aggressive defense into the third quarter, forcing Choctaw to take shots early and pressing the Yellowjackets (6-1) towards the outside perimeter. But Enid also faced the force of the Choctaw defense. In their first two possessions of the second half, Enid turned the ball over consecutively. The Plainsmen turned the ball over several times in the third quarter, either through intercepted passes, committing travels, or Choctaw stealing. “(Choctaw is) a good half-court execution team and we haven’t seen that in three games,” Duncan said. “It’s been a 94-foot game, so it’s difficult to slam on the brakes and execute in half-court with a young team.” Despite their mistakes, the Plainsmen found themselves with a better offensive effort in the second half. The Plainsmen managed to outscore their first half total (11) in the third quarter (13) and chipped away at the deficit. In the fourth quarter, Enid caught fire with a 9-0 run of consecutive 3-point shots from sophomore Damien Riemen and junior Matt Clark. But Choctaw’s offense never wavered throughout the game. With Brock Schreiner leading the way with 33 points, the Yellowjackets kept their distance from the surging Plainsmen. Enid was led in scoring by Darrin Ryan’s 12 points. “I felt like if we make one or two of those shots in the first half, its a close game at halftime,” Duncan said. “We just couldn’t get one to go down. They made their shots and we didn’t.”