On Friday, the boys basketball team lost 56-73 despite their hard work in their game against Wheat Ridge. The boys went into the game with a record of 4-6 after a loss against Golden on Wednesday, but went into the game with high energy and optimism.
“I was pretty excited, I was hyped up to play them because we’re pretty bitter towards each other,” said junior Matthew Sapakoff.
After this game, the record is now 4-7 and the boys feel motivated to keep working harder to improve and win more games.
“We know what we need to do, we have all the pieces we just have to put them together,” said senior Tayvis Sagrillo-Smiley.
In the first quarter, the Lions were not far behind with a score of 15-19 but in the second and third quarter could not wage the gap between scores, with 23-35 ending the second quarter. In the third and fourth quarter, Wheat Ridge scored lots of three pointers which landed the Lions with a final score of 56-73.
“We were making good shots some of the night, but like our defense was just wasn’t there and we didn’t have a lot of open shots and just hung the ball over too much but we’re going to fix that stuff,” said Sagrillo-Smiley.
For the rest of the season, the team hopes to keep working on defense and are motivated to keep working.
“I think we have a lot of promise, we just need to buy in more and start working harder and if we do that it’ll be good,” said Sapakoff.
During this game, the large crowd helped cheer on the Lions and motivated them to keep persevering. There was never a dull or quiet moment with this crowd and the energy was extremely high in the gym.
Along with Sagrillo-Smiley and Sapakoff, junior Reid Fornstrom and sophomore Emmett Loomis were also key players during this game and helped the team offensively.
After this game, the team is even more inspired to improve and as the next part of the season continues, we can’t wait to see what they do next. The Lions’ next game is on Wednesday, January 15th at Evergreen High School.
