The freshmen boys orange basketball team won 65-32 against the Manor Mustangs on Tuesday, Dec. 10. The game started out fast as the Warriors took the lead early in the first quarter and sped up during the third. The game slowed during the fourth quarter, but the team maintained their lead, holding out in the end. 

The Warriors took a swift lead as the game started, with Isaac Richie ‘28 quickly breaking across the court and sinking two back-to-back two-pointers. The Mustangs began to pick up the pace, but they were no match for the Warriors as Sullivan Russell ‘28 sank a three-pointer, and immediately caught a cross-court pass from Thomas Story ‘28 and drained a two. The quarter ended with Westwood in the lead 20-9.

“I was just trying to play the best defense I could, let my teammates score with some good assists, score the basketball and just have a good game,” Russell said.

The energy stayed consistent through the second quarter, as Owen Kim ‘28 made a bucket in the paint to keep the Warriors in the lead as the crowd burst in to cheers. Both teams were playing defense, and the score quickly rose to 23-11 with the Warriors in the lead. Judah Brown ‘28 took the offensive and broke across the court in a fast break, making a bucket and starting a run of layups that lasted until the end of the quarter. Finally, with 18 seconds left in the half, Richie shot a layup that brought the score to 36-18, with the Warriors up by double. 

“Every day [I] work on my handles, work on my speed. Just [to] stay consistent with all our work,” Richie said. 

The third quarter had a change in pace as the Warriors widened the gap, through a series of points that brought the score to 42-25. After a set of devastating fast breaks by Richie and Brown, Manor shifted into a defensive mindset and slowed the scores for both teams. But this didn’t do much, as soon the end of the third quarter set the score to 50-27 with the Warriors still dominating.

“I tell our guys not to really look at the scoreboard, but when you take a peek up there and you’re up ten and you take a peek again and you’re up 26, you kinda wanna pull the dogs off,” Said Coach Dezmun Williams. “But I teach them to be aggressive, it’s kinda what we did and then once we get to a point where we know they can’t return from the deficit [we] practice what we need to practice.”

The game slowed down in the fourth quarter as the Warriors anticipated their assured victory. But, despite their insurance, the Warriors never let up defensively, only allowing two buckets through the whole quarter as they refused to back down. To end out the quarter, the Warriors kept playing smart as Miles Fustes ‘28 and Aarav Karumanchi ‘28 continued to score for the Warriors. The game had a final score of 65-32 as the Warriors maintained a lead of double the Mustang’s score.

The Warriors will take the court again on the road on Friday, Dec. 13, against the Hutto Hippos.