On the freezing night of Jan. 2, the Warriors took on the Hendrickson Hawks in their district opener. Due to inclement weather conditions the JV and freshman games had been cancelled, leaving varsity as the only team with a full game. While the Warriors had previously beat the Hawks in their tournament the past weekend, they were unable to top them again and lost 67-55.

“Beating them before didn’t really change the fact that I knew we had to come and give it our all,” power forward Daniel Victor ‘18 said. “It was a little different that we had to start early because of the ice but once things got started it felt normal.”

To start the game, Mason Flood ‘19 was able to get the ball in the Warriors hands from the jump ball, but shortly the Warriors lost the possession and allowed Hendrickson to gain four points before Victor was able to score. Patrick Sladek ‘19 gave the Warriors a slight lead with the first three-pointer of the night, but before the quarter ended Hendrickson was back up 9-10.

As the second quarter started, the Hawks remained aggressive on defense as the Warriors struggled to pass the ball into play. Zach Shrull ‘19 hit two three-pointers to close the score gap, but the team was unable to gain a lead throughout the quarter. As the teams headed into the locker room for halftime, the Warriors were down 21-29.

“We played pretty bad and we knew they were a good team coming into the game so the margin of error was pretty small if we wanted to win the game,” Sladek said. “We turned the ball over too many times and shot poorly.”

Coming back from halftime, Latham Robinson ‘18 quickly scored a three-pointer for the Warriors followed by two from Shrull. However, due to lack of ball control from the Warriors, the Hawks gained possession of the ball and were able to score multiple times. The Warriors still trailed 34-44 at the end of the third quarter.

Going into the fourth quarter, the Warriors appeared determined to gain a lead. With aggressive moves from Victor and Brandon Parks ‘20 the Warriors were only down by three points for majority of the quarter. With three minutes on the clock, Sladek had a breakthrough as he stole the ball and raced down the court for a layup. Once the last two minutes began counting down, the players were scrambling for points which lead to multiple fouls. Ultimately the Warriors were unable to match the Hawks scoring and lost the game 67-55.

“Moving forward we need to work on protecting the ball and out individual defense,” Sladek said. “We should definitely beat them next time we play.”

The Warriors will take on their district rival, McNeil, in their next home game on Friday, Jan. 5 at 7:00 p.m.. Go Wood.