The Purdy boys basketball team got a taste of summer action last week, laying five shortened games over two days at the annual Purdy Hoopfest.

Heath Carmichael, Purdy boys basketball coach, said the event was an opportunity for the team to recalibrate its chemistry after losing six seniors from last season.

“In the summer, you’ve got to keep things in perspective, and from what we lost, we have a few guys that have not played with one another as much, so we were really working on chemistry,” he said. “We lost six seniors and with it some continuity. Motion [offense] is what I’ve always run as a player and a coach, and we saw a lot of good action and mixing up downscreen and backscreen passes.”

Hoopfest saw 10 varsity teams and seven junior varsity teams participate, and Purdy’s varsity went 2-3, while the junior varsity went 3-1. The Eagles beat Miller and Verona, and they fell to East Newton, southwest and Marionville. The junior varsity team fell to East Newton but beat Greenfield, Southwest and Marionville.

“Opposition-wise, we maybe play a couple schools we don’t normally see, and we hope to get some bigger schools in the future,” Carmichael said. “It was great to have the opportunity to play with each other and build chemistry for down the road, when we can hone in on more specific stuff.

“We saw a lot of good things offensively, especially being summer and not familiar with each other.”

Carmichael said the varsity got a solid feel for the game, and the outlook is positive.

“We’ll lose a little bit of size, but we will be able to mix up the action and play off of search other when we get more comfortable,” he said.