The Cavs boys varsity basketball team faced a hard loss against the Winters Warriors with a score of 43-13 on Dec. 2 at Country Day. 

Juniors point guard Jonah Angelo David,  power forward Rod Azghadi and small forward Tonye Jack combined to score the team’s 13 points in the third and fourth quarters. Each earned free throws and forced fouls, Azghadi and David combined to take 23 shots and make four.

The Cavaliers suffered in the first two quarters, falling behind 22 points and failing to score. A halftime talk from interim coach Mike Partington helped to rally the Cavs, and lead to a more competitive second-half, where the Cavs were able to amount 13 points.

Jack also provided strong defense, winning the team’s only block and fighting for seven rebounds, the most on the team.

The Cavs were also missing five of their varsity players and were only able to field seven players.

Coach Partington attributed the loss to some holes in the team’s defensive knowledge.

“This was a much better team than we played before. There are some things in our defense that we need to work on that are hard to teach in the middle of a game,”  Partington said. “We basically are not a great shooting team and they just dared us to shoot, and we didn’t make anything.”

Despite the loss, the Cavs are looking forward to another opportunity to prove themselves and repair the holes in their game. 

“We’re missing players, but that’s just excuses,” said junior power forward Samrath Pannu. “Our defense needs to be worked on. Our offense needs to be worked on. We need to make shots because we were shooting, but we weren’t making them.”

The Cavs’ next home game is on Dec. 12 at 7:30 p.m. against Stone Ridge Christian.

— By Adam Akins