On Dec. 13, the Varsity basketball team fell to James River at home. The game ended in a Wildcat loss of 43-62.  

Junior Milo Mulitalo, a center on the team, had some thoughts on the game. 

“I felt that there weren’t many strong points in the game. James River out hustled us, out shot us, and had a better attitude about the game. But we played solidly with most of our players in the double digits in points,” said Mulitalo. 

Mulitalo later goes on to add that an inspiring talk from a former basketball coach, Athletic Director Adam Haynes, helped lift the team up after the loss.

“We didn’t play very good defense in the first half which led to easy scores and second chance points. We weren’t hitting our shots like I know we can,” said Freshman shooting guard  Lincoln Hundley. 

Hundley later added, “Henry Lambert played lockdown defense on their best scorer and forced tough shots. This caused them  [James River] to be frustrated and take ill-advised shots.”

After the game, the team came up with a lot of reflections and plans on what they needed to work on. 

“We worked on defense non stop after that game,” said Hundley. 

Working hard on improvement, the team came back to play James River on Dec. 27 and beat them 67-62.  

“I felt that we all as a team played so much better the second time around. I think Brandon Mays deserves most of the praise for that game. I think he has somewhere in the twenties in points,” said Mulitalo. 

The team has started a 5-win streak since their first game against Parry McCluer on Dec. 22, 2022. The team will play Stuarts Draft next on Jan. 11 at Stuarts Draft High School.