After a devastating loss to Melbourne on Wednesday, Jan. 11, Boys varsity basketball had a chance to redeem themselves against Lake Howell on Friday, Jan. 13. They did just that, winning 78-73.

Even though this was not a district game, the tension and emotion was very high. Lake Howell’s head coach, John Castaneda, played basketball at Hagerty under head coach Joshua Kohn for four years. And since Lake Howell is in Seminole County, a lot of players from both teams are friends, but they did not act like it in this game.

“I don’t think that relationships matter in this game, you just kind of play,” Kohn said. “When you are between the lines, there is no mercy you show them, If anything it adds more tension and emotion.”

The rivalry became apparent in the first play when forward Will Faulk dunked on a defender and stunned the crowd. The momentum from that play allowed the team to only allow one point in the first four minutes of the game and gave varsity a 9-1 lead. Then Lake Howell found their rhythm and narrowed the lead to 19-13 at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter started off with forward Jordan Cox scoring five straight points, but from then on it was all Lake Howell. They went on an 8-0 run, but could not grab a hold of the lead with varsity being up 33-31 at halftime. Both teams were in foul trouble in the first half having nine fouls each and emotions were starting to heat up.

“We are going to play as a team and learn from what we did wrong,” guard Aiden Quiles said. “We can’t let [emotions] get to our heads but we know how they play [now] so it gives us an advantage.”

The second half was much of the same, Lake Howell took a six-point lead early in the third, but a big performance by Quiles and Cox helped the team gain the lead back. Quiles led the team with 14 points off the bench in the second half. Aided by Cox’s free throws and rebounds, varsity ended up regaining the lead 53-51, ending the quarter with Faulk’s second dunk of the game.

Only being up by two points entering the fourth quarter, the team knew they had to get stops on defense and convert on offensive opportunities if they wanted to extend the lead. A few minutes into the fourth, junior Grant Greene suffered an ankle injury during a collision, so in came Quiles who had three of his four three-pointers in the fourth quarter. Guard Danny Garrett also had two three pointers in the fourth quarter to help seal the victory.

“We played as a team,” Quiles said. “[Now we can] think about what we did wrong and learn from it for next game.”

The team is now 11-5 and their next game is Wednesday, Jan. 18 against East River at 7:00 p.m. at East River High School. The win against Lake Howell is a momentum boost and the team looks to continue that momentum for the remainder of the regular season and as districts nears.