Senior Mitchell Wilkinson scored 24 points in the boys varsity basketball team’s routing of Lowell on Friday; the boys beat the Red Arrows by a score of 63-26 to improve their winning streak to an impressive six games in a row. 

“It feels good [to extend our win streak]. Last year, we got off to kind of a rough start so it’s good this year that we’re getting hot at the start; we’re looking to keep it rolling next week,” senior Jimmy Scholler said.

This team has already improved substantially this season, but head coach Kyle Carhart said it hasn’t changed its ways.

“We haven’t done anything differently,” Carhart said. “I think our guys are acknowledging the importance of taking care of the basketball: in-game situations, late-game situations—we’ve done a better job of that.”

The Rangers were in full control of this game since the tip-off, not letting Lowell lead in this game even once, and it was clear the team was ready for the Red Arrows.

“We’ve been working the past three days scouting, running their defenses, so it really helped us. Carhart’s been doing well this year with that,” Mitchell said.

The boys scored in the double-digits every quarter, even netting 21 points in the third quarter, while Lowell wasn’t able to score more than seven points in any quarter. This domination resulted from success in both the offensive and defensive aspects of the game. 

On offense, Mitchell’s 24 points were the most scored by any Ranger in this game, and he was followed up by another double-digit scorer, Jimmy, who recorded 11 points. Junior Peyton Bush sat atop the assists column with four assists and junior Jonah Spates had three assists. Shooting well from two-point range again, the team posted a collective 57.9% shooting percentage from inside the arc.

The team shined on defense as well; Jonah had three steals and four other players on the team finished with two steals. Leading the team in blocks was Jimmy with three. Mitchell, Jonah, and junior Jacob Ervin each also had a block of their own.

At the end of the first quarter, the boys had built their lead up to 12 as the score was 17-5. Midway through the second quarter, Mitchell rocked the Lowell defense with a posterizing dunk, setting the tone for the rest of the game. Riding this momentum, the game had gotten out of hand when a 19-3 run was ignited by a two-point shot made by Mitchell and capped off at the end of the third quarter by a three-pointer made by junior Cam David.

In the wee minutes of the fourth quarter, Lowell tried to fight back by hitting a three-pointer, but to no avail. Junior George Hatchett converted on an and-one with less than a minute remaining to push the boys’ lead to 37, the largest of the night as the score changed to 63-26, the way it would stay when the final buzzer sounded to signify the Ranger victory.

“It’s been great. We have some challenging games coming up so it’s always onto the next game and it takes hard work to win games and our guys know that. We’ll just have to continue to get better and better each day,” Carhart said about how he felt about the team’s success.

The Rangers now move to 6-1 overall on the season and 3-0 in conference play, tying them at the top of the OK White with Northview and Forest Hills Northern. The boys will defend their home court in their next conference test when Ottawa Hills visits on Tuesday, January 21st at 7:00 pm.