On Dec. 4, 2014 in the Gables gym, our Cavaliers went head to head against their longtime rivals, the Columbus Explorers. Our team suffered a very close and unfortunate 46-42 loss.

“I feel like we played hard throughout the entire game, and we worked really hard, which nobody can disagree with, since I don’t know many teams that work harder than us … We were almost up the whole game but we just fell in the 4th quarter due to unforced turnovers and just careless mistakes. We were rushing everything in that 4th quarter,” sophomore Tristan Heubner said.

At the start of the first quarter, the Cavaliers won the jump ball and proceeded to score, taking an early 2-0 lead in the game. The Cavs proceeded to dominate the first quarter with a 9-2 lead over the Explorers. This pattern continued for the rest of the first half, ending with Gables holding a 23-15 lead. After halftime, Columbus started to gain more confidence in their playing, taking the lead for a majority of the third quarter, but again Gables ended on a high note with a close 34-30 lead due to some last minute-3 pointers. Unfortunately, Columbus quickly regained the lead when the whistle blew for the fourth quarter, and stayed ahead of our Cavs until the hard fought battle was over – the Explorers were victorious with a slim 46-42 escape.

“I was pleased with our effort, but we need to handle the ball better, especially down the stretch. We made many unforced turnovers in the fourth quarter, which is critical … We spend so much time together – more than with our true family’s! But that is where our strength lies – a family that plays together stays together. A season is a marathon, not a sprint, and we have lots of basketball to play still,” Coach Chachi Rodriguez said.

Although our Cavaliers suffered this minor setback, they will be back on their feet soon and hopefully better than ever, and for them this is just another way to learn and help them better themselves so when they face the Explorers again, they will come out on top. Their next game will be Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m., where the Cavaliers will take down Southwest.