Finally, the mighty Teague Lions Varsity Basketball team began their pre-season journey on Tuesday, November 22. The boys piled on the bus and headed to Hearne for the first game of the season. The game began when the five starters for the team stepped onto the court. This year’s starters are Landon Lancaster (12), Casey Samuels (12), Antonio Garcia (12), Lane Scruggs (11), and Daryl Brooks (11). From tip off, the games intensity level was very high, and only increased as the game went on. After many questionable calls from the officials, the Teague Lions could not pull out the win which gave them an 0-1 record to start the season.

However, this team was not down about the loss, they continued to work hard throughout the next few practices in hopes of improving their record with their next game against Fairfield. Friday, November 29, the team hopped on the bus for a quick trip to the rival neighboring town. Again, the boys began the game with intensity and fought to make the game an alternating scoring frenzy. At the half, the Eagles were up by two. Scruggs had kept the team rolling throughout the first half, and the Fairfield bench knew they needed to stop him. After half-time, the Eagles set up a defense that the Lions could not answer to. This put an end to the scoring frenzy and put the Eagles up for the rest of the game. This gave the Lions an 0-2 record heading into the Italy Tournament.

Still wrestling with Pre-District jitters, the group of boys improved their record to 1-4 in the Italy tournament. After obtaining a win under their belt, they transformed into a completely different team and their confidence level was raised. The next week, the team traveled to the West Tournament where they improved their record to 3-5 and won third place.