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The Grizzlies faced off against the Monache Marauders on Wednesday, Jan. 11 at Granite Hills. This was a game that was anticipated to have a very lop sided score, but like the saying goes “It’s not over, until it’s over” and the Grizzlies were able to prove exactly that.

Before the highly anticipated game, Coach Luther, varsity boys basketball coach, commented, “Monache is a very talented team; very elite. It’s going to be difficult tonight. I have 6 returners and they’re doing really well and practicing. They played in the Orange Belt Championship a couple weeks ago and we barely lost by 2. We didn’t do so great in EYL, but they’re getting better and always improving.”

The Grizzly defense seemed to struggle in the beginning of the first quarter allowing the Marauders to jump ahead with an 11-2 lead. At first the Marauders offense seemed to be too much for the Grizzlies to handle scoring basket after basket. However, later in the first quarter the Grizzly defense tightened up and went on to end the first quarter of play trailing 13-10.

On the sidelines with his team was the Grizzlies leading scorer, Dante Cunningham. Cunningham was out due to an ankle injury he suffered in their loss against Tulare Union Monday night at Union. However, Cunningham is expected to return within the next couple of weeks.

“The other opponent stepped on my ankle and I rolled it,” says Cunningham. “Tonight we were doing great keeping up in the scores during the first half, but second half barely slipped away from us. They played really good; better than we expected.”

Even though the starter is walking in crutches, he is out there still supporting his team.He pumps up the team by telling them to “go hard and never give up. I tell them to just keep going and keep your heads up.”

The Grizzlies continued to play well throughout the second quarter and were able to keep the two neck to neck. It was evident that the game was far from over when the Grizzlies went into the half trailing 22-21.

“I think we played really good; better than I thought we were going to play without Dante. I’m really proud of the team; we played a great game,” says varsity player, Josh Lewis. “We just have to work on defense, but we were really hitting the rack.”

Despite their great defense right before the half, the Grizzlies allowed the Marauders to go on a 6-0 run right out of the gate to start the second half. This however, was no big deal to the very explosive Grizzly offense.

Junior point guard Josh Lewis led the Grizzlies with 18 total points on the night. Alex Medina also contributed to the scoring with 12 points. Even with these two players have amazing games, the Grizzlies came up short. The final score was Monache 51, Granite Hills 40.

“I’m proud of the team,” commented Eric Bartlett, one of Granite’s top alumni and ex-basketball player in the crowd. “They did really well considering Dante being out tonight. Even though it got away from them during the last quarter, it was a great game and I really enjoyed it.”