The LHS boys basketball team was supposed to tip off the season on Dec. 10, 2021; however, due to the snow storm causing the cancellation of all school activities, they were not able to compete against one of their biggest rivals, the WHS Warriors. 

This year, the LHS boys basketball team is ranked number four heading into the season. Although, many players, coaches and parents suspect that they will be a contender for the State title. Unfortunately, the game that many players were looking forward to the most got rescheduled to the end of February. Due to the cancellation of Friday’s game, the LHS boys basketball team was one of four teams, out of 19, who had not gotten to play a game yet. For their next scheduled game, they played Harrisburg the night of Dec. 14, 2021, the season opener for the Harrisburg Tigers.  

The Patriots started off the game with a well fought 11 points in the first quarter. During the first quarter, JT Rock had gotten fouled many times, given that he is a 7’1 sophomore on the court and is very intimidating to the defending team. So, the Tigers made it their goal to shut him down and not let him score. In the second quarter, the Tigers had more of a lead than the Patriots would have liked, with a score of 31 to 41 going into the half. 

This year, the Patriots have many young players on Varsity. Team assets like Elliot Whitney, JT Rock and Eli Olsen are getting many varsity minutes this year. Whitney and Olson are both juniors who have never played varsity before. JT Rock, however, did have a few minutes on varsity last year. Whitney and Rock are both starting varsity this year, which is new for them from last year. 

When the third quarter came, the Patriots came out a little bit slow. After being down by 21 points with a minute and a half left in the third quarter, the Patriots were able to start their comeback which would carry into the fourth quarter, getting the lead all the way down to just seven points for the Tigers. In the last quarter, the Patriots came very close to getting their first win of the season on the opening night. However, after a hard, long-fought game, they came up short of a win, losing the game 63-71.

By the end of the game, Rock led the team with 20 points, along with Whitney who recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists. In the second half, Whitney scored 9 points, scoring 2 three-pointers and 3 free throws. The Patriots fought hard in the second half as they shut down the Tiger’s lead scorer number 2, Ethan Determan. This allowed the Patriots to lessen the points scored by the Tigers and come close to a much wanted win. Getting the first game jitters out of the way, after playing a team who made an incredible amount of shots, scoring 42 points from the three-point line and 17 from the free throw line, the Patriots are now focused on their next big game Dec. 17, 2021.