The JV Boys Basketball team had a rough start to their season. With a record of eight wins and eight losses almost halfway through the season it’s been an uphill battle so far for the boys, but the outlook for the rest of the season is promising.

Many of the games that the boys have lost have been very close with them leading in the first half and falling behind in the second half. Not being able to stay ahead in the games is what is causing such close losses and hardly any wins.

The boys started off the season with three games in one week. On Nov. 19 they went head to head with East Dubuque and were barely defeated with a score of 33-36.

They then played Fulton on Nov. 21 and lost another close game with a score of 34-40.

That Saturday the 24 they played River Ridge and dominated them for their first win of the season with a score of 56-31.

In the same tournament the boys lost to Orangeville by one point with a final score of 27-28. Sophomore Jake Townsend said, “We have a hard time finishing the games, we always lead the games by a lot and then in the second quarter we think we have the game and we end up falling behind.”

That next week the boys went head to head against Southwestern on Nov. 27, this was yet again another close game with a score of 37-41.

Days later the Pirates faced off the Warriors for a second time hoping for a win, but were left shipwrecked with a score of 27-34. Payton LuGrain ‘22 said, “I think that we are constantly improving this season and the rest of the season is looking up, we are definitely working better as a team and we are sticking in the game in the second half more than we were in the beginning of the season, so hopefully we can pull out more wins as the season progresses.”

The JV Pirates then had a week off from games but were back into things on Saturday Dec. 8 with two games. The first game they played on Saturday was against Lancaster; the boys were able to pull out a win with a score of 35-26.

Then in their next game that day against Pecatonica they lost by a score of 39-45.

The Pirates played another game on Dec. 13, again against East Dubuque, this time hoping to pull out a win but sadly they were defeated in a close game with a score of 36-40.

“All of our games are so close in scoring because we come out slow and we underrate all of the teams and they end up being just as good as we are but we didn’t expect to play against a team like that.” said Brady Schemehorn ‘22.

They then had a break from their games and played their next game on Dec. 22 against South Beloit. The Pirates were able to play a strong game and shut down the ??? with a final score of 55-26.

After Christmas and the New Year the Pirates were back into the swing of things with their first game on Jan 2 against Orangeville. Conor Behr said, “We practiced all winter break so we were more then prepared for our game against Orangeville.”

The Pirates defeated the Broncos by a score of 38-28.

The Pirates then had a game on Jan 4 against Scales Mound. The Pirates were defeated by the Hornets with a score of 32-49.

They then came back from that loss on Jan 8 with a close win against Warren. They ended the game with a score of 46-44.

The boys are working hard in practice to try and get their record back up by the end of the season. “I think we will do much better in the second half of the season then we did in the beginning,” Ryan Holland ‘21 said. “We have been making some great progress lately and I think we are really starting to work together as a team.”