On Tuesday, Dec. 4, the varsity boys’ basketball team looked to start the new week off with a win over the Hendrickson Hawks at home, but were unable to claim the result they wanted, falling to the visitors by the scoreline of 70-52. Patrick Sladek ‘19 finished with 19 points, leading all Warrior players. Sladek shot seven-for-12 from the field, and Corey Levinson ‘19 added 16 points off the bench, hitting four three-pointers.

“[Hendrickson] were a lot bigger than us, so we had to play really physical, and I don’t think we matched their physicality. We started slow and we didn’t make shots,” Sladek said.

The Warriors started out slow, only making one shot in the entire first quarter, a Demetrius Jones ‘19 three-pointer, as the Warriors couldn’t break down the Hendrickson defense. This led to the home team finding themselves down by double digits early in the ballgame, as the Warriors were down 14-3 at the end of the first quarter.

The Warriors were able to find their rhythm on offense in the second quarter of play, but still found themselves trailing the visitors at the halftime buzzer, 35-20. At the end of the first half, the Warriors finished with eight fouls compared to Hendrickson’s three, allowing the Hawks to make frequent trips to the free-throw line and increase their lead.

As the second half got underway, the Warriors were able to resume their up-tempo offense from the second quarter, going on a 10-2 run to cut the lead to single digits, decreasing the Hawks’ advantage to as little as seven points. However, due to poor shot efficiency and foul trouble later in the half, the Warriors gradually began to lose the hot streak they started the second half with and started to fall behind even further, watching their comeback hopes diminish until the final whistle, as the match ended 70-52 in favor of the Hawks.

“We fought hard but we are still finding our rhythm. I’m proud of how we responded, but we need to piece together the puzzle this week and come ready to play Friday,” Ethan Brown ‘19 said.

The Warriors will look to rebound from the loss as they head on the road to take on the Vista Ridge Rangers on Friday, Dec. 7 at Vista Ridge High School.