The new season has begun for the North Forsyth boys varsity basketball team and they played against Lambert High School on Dec. 5. Before the game, senior Brayden Turner said the team prepared for the game with “a bunch of practice, [we] got like two days of practice after the last game and Lambert does a lot of running so [we] practiced running.” In addition to preparing for Lambert, Coach Ware said “[Lamber] does a full court press, and [North] responds by staying composed under pressure” in response to how the team will react to the way Lambert plays.    

At the start of the game, Lambert and North went back to back, and kept pace with one another.   But early in the 2nd quarter Lambert really started to control the game.   After a steal by Marshall Coleman for Lambert they would go on a huge run to put the Longhorns up by double digits at the half.  The run included huge dunks from William Dopfer and Cameron Bland.  Dopfer would also add a 3 pointer that would put the Longhorns up 21 points at the half.  

Coach Sokol and the team came out of the gates red hot after the 2nd half started. They went on a run that would bring them within 8 on the scoreboard led by numerous 3-pointers and big defensive stops.  Junior Guard Brogen Casey would add multiple points during the run,  Along with sophomore center Michael Akinrinmade adding multiple points in the paint to help the Raiders slowly get back into the game,   But right when it seemed like the Raiders would get back into it, the Longhorns went on another run that included multiple 3’s that would eventually put the game out of reach for the Raiders. Lambert would go on to win 64-48.  

After the game senior player Brayden Turner said, “We got down early and just kept battling..”  when asked what he thinks went well for the Raiders. Turner also said that he believes they could “start faster, [we] got down early so just coming out of the game faster could be better” after he was asked about what the team could do to improve in practice for their next game. Turner said the biggest takeaway from the game was that “we can compete with anybody because, in the 2nd half, we showed that we can compete with any team” because of the fight the Raiders showed even while being down late in the game. The Raiders will get in the gym and fix their mistakes as they prepare to take on Denmark this Saturday, Dec. 9 in the Raider Arena.