LANGLEY — A four-win conference season was difficult for Falcon seniors to brag about.

Things were a lot worse when they started the year 1-3. Yet, South Whidbey’s boys basketball squad salvaged the season and finished the last four games 3-1.

“At the beginning of the season they didn’t listen to us as much,” said Falcon assistant coach Ed Baran.

Through one month of games, South Whidbey had a 3-6 overall record before the New Year. Two of those victories were during the Seaside Holiday Classic basketball tournament in Seaside, Oregon. Four of those losses were by double digits — an average scoring deficit of almost 23 points per game.

South Whidbey found itself reeling early in the season, which was at times a challenging reality for the coaches and players after the 2010-2011 squad made a district tournament run.

“Last year’s squad was a lot more experienced in the varsity level . . . and probably a little more talented,” said senior point guard Sam Lee.

“Last year, we probably could’ve beat every team in the conference, but sometimes there was a lack of effort. ‘Work makes talent, but talent doesn’t work,’ is what they say.”

The gap between practice and game was wide in the first half of the season. Baran, the coach in charge of scouting other teams, said players failed to execute the plays through the first dozen or so games. What was especially troubling for the coaches was the preparation and planning given to defending the other teams — all for naught.

“Teams never did anything that we didn’t expect,” Baran said.

Part of the slow start fell at Lee’s feet like a missed pass. The four-year letterman and lifetime point guard had to adjust to a heavy workload as the primary ball handler and distributor. He spent the previous season as a reserve guard, and played mainly as a scorer and less as a passer. Before that, he wasted on the bench, not seeing minutes on junior varsity or varsity.

“I came into the program my first year of high school, and since early sophomore year I’ve been sitting on the bench not playing JV or varsity,” Lee said.

“Those first games I was figuring out the ways to work the ball around. Good habits are what I needed.”

Poor defense and sloppy offense led to self-described “embarrassing” losses against Lynden (64-18), King’s (74-50) and Archbishop Murphy (56-29). The coaches said their approach was relaxed at first as an inexperienced squad found its rhythm and learned the plays. When that didn’t happen, frustration boiled over and the players heard an earful.

After the Lynden loss, one of the worst in recent Falcon history, Pope said he saw players joking around and laughing. He was not amused and asked them what they found funny. They replied by saying they could either cry about it, or try to laugh it off.

The lopsided loss turned into a pivotal learning point for both coaches and players for good and bad. A couple of players quit earlier than halfway through the season because of playing time and the rigors of practices and games.

“Sometimes coaches lose the perspective that these are high school kids, and they’re still young boys — they make mistakes,” Pope said.

“For us to teach them life lessons, we coaches need to follow those life lessons.”

South Whidbey started 2012 with a 63-38 home victory against Coupeville. It was the largest margin of victory the Falcons had all year, and the first win in Washington in a month.

Old habits returned, as turnovers and shooting slumps continued in a loss against Cedarcrest, 65-57. Against the Cascade Conference’s best 2A squad, however, Pope saw the near-miss as a sign of improvement.

It took almost an entire season for the Falcons to flow well. After consecutive double-digit losses to King’s, Archbishop Murphy and Sultan,  the most upsetting loss was still to come against Cedarcrest (76-37).

The 39-point defeat flummoxed the Falcon coaches. Despite the previous losses, Pope and Baran said they liked the effort and hustle the players put into practices and games. Hard work was nowhere to be found in the home rematch against Cedarcrest, and the coaches got after their players in a post-game team-only meeting.

“There were several games where I wasn’t yelling, but I voiced what I was trying to get done,” said senior forward Zach Comfort.

The Falcons returned to lose 48-32 to the King’s Knights in a late rally. After that defeat, Pope said he was proud of the way the Falcons played, and said if they performed the same way in the final four games, wins would follow.

Call Pope a prophet. The key to turning losses into wins, Pope said throughout the season, was limiting turnovers.

“We used to average over 20 turnovers, now we average maybe eight,” Pope said.

Four days later, the Falcons upset the AMHS Wildcats 54-42 for their second conference victory. 

“It was just us being smart with the ball and moving with a purpose,” said Lee, who scored six points including four free throws in the final two minutes.

South Whidbey finished its season with a 57-54 victory over Lakewood. In the season finale, Lee scored 16 points and Comfort led with 23.

With possibly six juniors, one sophomore and one freshman returning, the Falcons won’t face the same crisis of replacing an entire starting lineup. They will, however, have to replace their top scorers.

“Zach and Sam are going to be very difficult to replace,” Baran said. “We’ve got three starters coming back in Taylor Simmons, Nick French and Josh Bishop.”

To win games and advance to the district playoffs, Falcon coaches and players said, requires playing in the off-season. Pope set up a spring league South Whidbey team, and said he wants to play in summer and fall.

Baran, who coached for more than 20 years, said that may be the difference for next year’s team.

“Henry now has set up in place a very good program for the spring,” Baran said. “We’re playing in a spring league, probably playing in a summer league and a fall league.”

“If we don’t play in a spring league, if we’re not playing in a summer league, a fall league, we’re not getting better.”