With the Eagles losing to Riverdale and starting league play 0-1,  it was crucial they beat Parlier, Jan. 19. The Eagles played the Parlier Panthers and ended up with a win. The team dominated the first three quarters of the game. With the Eagles leading, Parlier was not going to give up. The Eagles ended up winning 69-55.

One of the senior captains Justin Houts thinks the Eagles won because they came together and played as a team. “I was very happy with our performance against Parlier,” Houts said. “We worked on our full court press a lot during practice leading up to the game, and we were able to pull it off. I hope we can repeat our same performance when we play away at Parlier.

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The Eagles also played Caruthers, Jan. 22, after the Eagles started off 1-1 in league it was a statement game. The Eagles were losing at the end of the first quarter and both teams were exhausted. Both teams were struggling due to the hot packed gym, some players had to leave and get stretched out to fix their cramps. The Eagles were down in halftime and tried to fight back but the Raiders were playing faster. In the fourth quarter the Eagles cut the lead down to 5 but that fueled the opposing team to go on a run. The team ended up falling to the Caruthers Raiders 52-38. Head Coach Jon Penberthy believes there was good that came out of both games but there are things that must need improvement for the Eagles to succeed. “We played three really good quarters versus Parlier,” Penberthy said. “We passed the ball really well and played good pressure defense. I think versus Caruthers we played a good second half, unfortunately we had five guys in foul trouble by the second half. We need to improve our defensive rotations to get into better positions to make stops.”

The Eagles play Fowler in the third league game of the regular season, Jan. 26. Fowler is currently 13-5 and in preseason won 10 games. Fowler is undefeated in league so far, the Eagles plan to derail them off their wining streak. The Eagles think they can stop the hot Fowler Redcats, Penberthy has a game plan that he thinks will work. He mentioned, “For Fowler we need to execute both on offense and defense and match their intensity.”

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