On Jan. 10, the Phoenix faced off against the Loudoun County Captains at their tenth game of the season. The junior varsity team won 46-43 while the varsity team lost 65-56.

The junior varsity team was neck to neck against the Captains with the Phoenix narrowly leading in each quarter. The varsity team battled the Captains in the first half and were tied 28-28 at the end of the first half, with Senior Brett Suazo making two free throws to get the score tied seconds before halftime. However, the Phoenix fell behind in the second half, losing to the Captains by nine points. “We still don’t think that we’ve played our best basketball yet,” senior Brett Suazo said.  “We think we’re going in the right direction, so we think we’re going to keep improving.”

Coach Jason Geyer heads the boys varsity basketball team and believes that regardless of the abundant new players this year, they have a fighting chance of making it to the regionals. “I think [the season] is going well,” he said.  “It started out with losses playing a hard schedule with new guys and since then we’ve really played a lot better.” 

This season also brought multiple challenges, including COVID-19 and the number of snow days, inhibiting the team from being able to play or practice as scheduled. “When you miss time, you miss practices, and that kind of hurts you a little bit, but we’re going to overcome it,” Geyer said. 

The teams watch films as well as investigate the opposing team’s strategies to prepare for the games; however, it “doesn’t mean we do something different every time, we still want to be the best version of us that we can be, but we know their tendencies,” Geyer said. The teams are able to predict their opponents and are more prepared.

Gallery • 9 Photos

Prajna Chakravarty

Freshman William Beck (14), sophomore Kyle Desai (2), and sophomore Issac Wong (11) line up in front of the net. Beck made his free throw.