After keeping the game neck and neck until half time, it was the boys’ varsity basketball team’s poor execution in the second half that led to their downfall, with the Cats dropping to the Astronaut War Eagles 80-59.

Junior Jake Dimond led the way with 13 points as well as tallying double-digit rebounds.

Senior team captain Sam Lack attributed the Cats’ loss to their poor defensive form in the second half.

“For the first half we were right with them, and that’s how we wanted to play,” Lack said. “Then in the second half we just stopped playing defense. You can’t win if you don’t play defense, especially against an experienced team like Astronaut.”

Though this loss marks the third straight loss of the new year and seventh straight loss on the regular season excluding tournaments, Lack is still hopeful for the Cats’ future.

“We are getting where we want to be as a team, but it’s games like this that show that we still have a few steps to go before becoming the team that we think we can be,” he said. “I think when we are able to fix the problems keeping us back now we will be a really good team.”

With the Cats’ regular season record continuing to drop, the boys are now owners of a 5-15 record on the regular season.  With the remaining seven games on the boys’ regular season not getting any easier, the Cats will travel to Cocoa to take on the Tigers in yet another division game.