One of the many skills necessary to coach basketball, or any sport, is to be able to identify where things went wrong.

In the 5A boys' basketball tournament, the first-round problems for Skyline in a loss to Pleasant Grove were pretty obvious. The Eagles might cite their horrendous 2-for-17 three-point shooting. Or maybe their lack of team depth inhibited their ability to press for an entire game. But you can make it more basic than that.

Pleasant Grove's C.J. Wilcox is really, really good.

The Eagles' promising season came to an Monday afternoon at the hands of a greater opponent, and that was Wilcox. Wilcox finished with 30 points in the win.

Skyline has fought and battled with the best of Region 2, but nothing, or better yet no one, could prepare them for the performance Wilcox put on. For Skyline coach Derek Bunting, it was a disappointing, and humbling, end to the season.

"Well, you know, C.J. Wilcox why he's going to be playing in the Pac-10 next year," said Bunting after the loss. "That's basically what it came down to. We did not shoot the ball well, went 2-for-17 from three-point land. You know, a combination of C.J. playing that well and our guys not shooting well at all, well, what can you do?"

The E Center is notorious for being a tough place to shoot. Unfortunately for Skyline it only seemed to affect the Eagles. The duo of Ryan Osterloh and Kevin Wagstaff combined for only 24 points, certainly a disappointing finale to what has been one of the hottest one-two punches of the state this year.

Davey Weixler attempted to pick up the slack, scoring a team-high 14, but it wasn't enough after getting into a 14-point hole at the half. To add insult to injury, Osterloh also was the man assigned to cover Wilcox, an assignment that proved to be impossible for one man.

"Ryan did a good job keeping him out of the lane, but [Wilcox] was getting inside that 10- to fifteen foot range, and at 6-foot-5, it didn't matter how many were in his face," said Bunting. "He had it clicking."

The end of the game marked the end of an era. Losing students to graduation is something every team has to deal with, but in Skyline's case, the Eagles had the rare advantage of starting alls eniors. The competitive nature of Region 2 did not allow much room for underclassmen to get minutes. First the Eagles lost the game, then Bunting lost the entire team.

"Every kid we played tonight were seniors, so it's going to be a rebuilding process with these underclassmen," said Bunting. "We had two juniors who came off the bench while we were having injury issues earlier in the year, but they didn't play tonight and they're going to be the guys that carry the load next year. We'll need some guys that can rise to the occasion."

The current players are left to deal with a scarring loss. It's true, in the end, this group of Eagles were unsuccessful in their bid for a state title, but any coach that has been around long enough to watch a group come up together and go down together knows there's more to the experience than just basketball.

"The reason you get involved in athletics is, it's not about winning and losing a game," said Bunting. "What I was most proud of in our guys is the work our seniors put in over the last three years. I couldn't ask more as far as their work ethic is concerned. Just because we couldn't win the game today isn't as important.

"There's nothing but how proud I feel for them. In the long run winning and losing a basketball game isn't important."