The Ninth Grade Boys Basketball Team Triumph Against Lambert (50-38)

Emmelyn Harrison, Staff Writer|February 9, 2022

  • The winning score of the long-fought battle between the Raiders and the Longhorns. Photo by Emmelyn Harrison.

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  • North cheerleader’s spirited halftime routine. Photo by Emmelyn Harrison.

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On Thursday, Jan. 20, after school in the Raider Arena, the ninth-grade boy’s basketball team faced off against the Lambert Longhorns. The Raiders triumphed against the Longhorns, winning the game 50-38.

During the first quarter, the Raiders were behind by 10 points, the Longhorns maintained a strong defense, preventing North Raiders from scoring any points. In the second quarter, the Raiders realized that the game would not be an easy win, and they needed to fight hard. By the end of the second quarter, the score was 28-30, with the Raiders close behind.

After halftime, the Raiders came out of the locker room with a completely different energy, motivated to play and ready to win. The Raiders dominated the Longhorns with their defense. North Raiders kept the Lambert Longhorns at 30 while they brought their score up to 44. As for the fourth quarter, the teams went back and forth with foul shots. The Raiders came out on top with a score of 50 and Longhorns with a score of 38.

The game was close the entire time with foul shot after foul shot. The Raiders fought hard to pull their score up and succeeded despite the pushback from the Lambert Longhorns. Freshman Jared Flores-Melo, #17, scored most of the points for the team. With the help of his teammates, he pulled out a win. Flores-Melo explained, “We all just stayed focused the whole game and played well, so the win was a good feeling knowing we had worked for it.”

The team practiced, specifically, to challenge the Longhorns. “Going into the game, we knew that [the Longhorns] had already beaten us once, so we had to come in and play hard,” said Flores-Melo. They wanted to be ready for anything the Longhorns threw at them, and they were. The team practiced as the JV boys basketball team was playing, and it paid off as the Raiders pulled through and got a win for the school.

The team works together and communicates with each other on and off the court to grow a stronger bond. That teamwork pays off on the court when they are in stressful situations. They can work together and get out of it, which helped get them up from the bottom and sore to the top. The final score was 50-38.