On Monday, Dec. 5 the men’s varsity basketball team beat Glenelg Country School 66-60.

According to sophomore point guard Nigel Haughton, the team redeemed themselves after a bad loss on the previous Friday with a score of 80-59 to St. Maria Goretti. “We stayed strong mentally, and we bounced back from a bad night on Friday,” Haughton said.

Junior guard Montez Mathis, Haughton, and junior forward Nate Roberts were the team’s most valuable assets during the game, according to head coach John Zito. “I thought Montez played well, I thought Nigel Haughton did a great job controlling the game for us, [and] Nate Roberts did a great job inside for us,” Zito said. Mathis ended the game with 31 points and 14 rebounds, Haughton with 14 points, and Roberts with 12 points.

According to Zito, the team has had some trouble this year on defense, but, “this was one of our better games.” In addition, some key turnovers occurred that were unusual for the team to make.

When looking back on the game, Zito believes the team could have “been a little smarter and needed to slow down and make good decisions.”

For the future, the team hopes to strengthen their defense. “I really wanted to hone in on defense. We have not been playing good defense and that’s something that needs to become a staple for us,” Zito said.

Overall, the team was pleased with the outcome of the monday night game and looks forward to the rest of the season and improving their performance. “We’re not a finished product, we know it’s a long season, and we consider it a process,” Zito said.

The next men’s basketball game will be at home against Boys Latin on Friday, Dec. 9.

Katherine Grimm is the Media Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.