Varsity Basketball Season Openers

photo by Courtney Whitley

Both Boys and Girls of WGHS Basketball have won their openers with ease this 23-24 winter season, and this is how they did it.
​by Ane'J Beers, Dylan Calvo, and Brooklyn Hayes

photo by Courtney Whitley

The Walnut Grove Boys basketball team kicked off their season on Saturday, November 11th, against Lanier High School. The boys traveled to North Oconee and beat Lanier 76-62, via MaxPreps. With the game being somewhat close, the players gave us their input. Senior, Tyler Jewel states, “It was close at the beginning and I feel like we could’ve done better,” and Junior, Terrance Berimah adds, “I feel like the game was close, especially in the beginning, but after halftime we had it.” The boys have confidence this team will succeed this season even though they graduated some good talent last year.

Both Tyler and Terrance said that the team has a different feel because they are playing at a faster and more aggressive pace than last season. The team has put in a lot of hard work this past offseason with conditioning and practice to help them succeed. Tyler states, “Practice comes into play a lot because it helps us play hard and compete,” Terrance adds, “Most of the time when we have good practices we play better, and when we have bad practices, we don’t play that great.” The boys plan to continue to put in the hard work, so they can improve before their next game. 

---

photo by Oliver Parker

​WGHS girls had an “easier” game than the boys having beat Shiloh High School 48-35 at home on November 14th. “It shouldn’t have been close because the other team wasn’t that good, " senior Niera Ovalles said. With the game starting simple for the Warriors, Shiloh's defense was just warming up. Being 22-8 by the end of the first half the Warriors had this in the bag but within the second half, Shiloh girls started to make a comeback making it 34-23 by the end of the third period, “I feel like it shouldn’t have been close. We could’ve played ten times better but we just didn’t,” constructed by Freshman Teresha Smith. 

The first game is always a rocky start but the Lady Warriors finished 19-6 overall in the 22-23 season and have created a team that even with unlucky situations can bounce back and finish the season with a slam dunk. “Two of us were injured last year so we missed last season, and we tend to have injuries throughout the season but right now we’re all healthy and working together,” eagerly expresses Niera. Without injuries this season we can say that the lady warriors can make a swish for the rest of the season. 

Both teams look to have a spectacular rest of the 23-24 season. Come support both teams next games with the boys playing at Pebblebrook on November 18th; and the girls playing at Clarke Central on November 20th. 

---