After beating Timberland in overtime on Feb. 7th, with a score of 65-64, the boys varsity basketball were ready to play against Pattonville on Tues. Feb. 11th. The boys defeated their opponents with a final score of 67-48. They conquered the court and left Pattonville in their dust.

Before the game, senior Justin Hayden and junior Allen Erby were confident in their team and knew they had what it took to win. According to Erby, the varsity boys assume every team they will play would be a tough team to beat, to make the best out of their practices. Before going out on the court, the boys focused on the game and avoided messing around.

“I think we’ll do good if we push the ball, keep the game at a high tempo and don’t slow down. Then we’ll be fine,” Hayden said.

Because Pattonville was expected to be a tough opponent, the varsity coach helped the boys understand what they needed to work on to ensure their win.

“We got to watch how they play, and coach told us their tendencies and what they’re good at and what they’re not, so we have a pretty good mindset going into the game,” Hayden said.

At first, Pattonville took the lead and scored the first two points of the game, and soon after, followed up with two more. At about five minutes and 40 seconds in, Hayden puts Central’s first two points on the board. After back and forth scoring, the buzzer rang, signaling the end of first quarter, which left the score 20-14, with Pattonville in the lead.

Second quarter didn’t look much better for the Spartans at first. Central fouled on Pattonville’s shot, which allowed them to gain one more point. About 6 minutes into second quarter, #00 sinks in a three pointer, followed by two more points for Central.

After winning the lead in second quarter, Pattonville scores and ties up the game 28-28. Third quarter ends with a score of 44-34, with Central in the lead.

Because of their lead in the first few quarters, Pattonville didn’t expect the Spartans to conquer the court and beat them by 19 points. The game ended 67-48.

“I think we played alright. We had a couple of turnovers that we shouldn’t have had, but we played good as team,” Erby said.

Again, the snow days are believed to have an affect on the team. Last week, it snowed during school, taking practice time from the boys on Tuesday and Wednesday. The snow has been interfering with the basketball players’ big games since the beginning of the season. According to Hayden, the snow forced a couple of key conference games to be postponed multiple times.

“When we have snow days, we can’t practice. Like if we’re not in the gym for 3-4 days, and we come back and have to play a game, it’s pretty rough,” Hayden said. “They’ve messed up the season a little bit, but it’ll all eventually work out.”