This Saturday on December 3rd, Griffith Boys Basketball played their first game at home, playing host to the Lake Station Edison Eagles. Last season, Griffith opened with a game against Lighthouse and a game against Lake Station a couple of weeks later. Griffith was narrowly defeated by Lighthouse 57-55. Griffith played an extremely tough game against Lake Station which ended in a 70-66 loss. This year Griffith’s team has proved to be a much-improved group as well as a team with a lot of depth and teamwork. Griffith started this game without one of their better players Jakhari Mackey. To give some background, Lake Station’s team is almost entirely comprised of seniors with 7 of their 8 players being seniors. This year Griffith’s team is still relatively young, with a lot of the main contributors being sophomores and juniors. Into the game, Griffith opened with a 6-0 run that would be met with a couple of jump shots from Lake Station. Shortly after this, Griffith ran into foul trouble as one of their notable defensive players Savon Miles had picked up his 3rd foul. Soon after that, Griffith put Lake Station in the bonus in the first quarter and AJ Ladendorf had 3 fouls as well. This was a tough spot to be in, especially without Mackey who would have been able to fill these roles. Griffith did their best to fight off the Eagles’ barrage but went into halftime down 39-20. The Panthers struggled with turnovers as well. Lake Station’s press produced 12 turnovers at the half. Despite this adversity, Griffith managed to fight their way back into it. Middle to the late fourth quarter, Griffith began to gain momentum and started to get easy points and stops. The Panthers broke out the full-court press with under 2 minutes remaining and managed a few more easy buckets before eventually running out of time. The game ended 63-54 in favor of the Eagles. Lake Station was led by senior guard Armoni Gonzalez who scored 14 points, along with 5 rebounds, 6 steals, and 3 assists. Willie Miller also gave Lake Station a scoring surplus of 22 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 blocks. On Griffith’s side, the scoring was very spread out besides forward Cameron Chandler. Cameron credits the loss to turnovers and foul trouble, but praises the team for a good performance both offensively and defensively. Chandler put up a remarkable double-double with 18 points on great efficiency (69%). To go along with the leading scoring, he led the team and the game with 14 rebounds. Sophomore guard AJ Hatch stuffed the stat sheet with 7 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. Griffith’s next matchup is Bishop Noll on 12/7, a GSSC opponent which is sure to make for a good game.