The Scouts opened their season strong, winning four of their first six games. They started with the Thanksgiving tournament, where Lake Forest won three games and advanced to the finals. Although the Scouts lost to New Trier, they bounced back with a dominant 68-45 win against Lakes. The team lost their most recent game with a score of 61-49 against Hersey.

3x Varsity player and senior captain Bolurin Taiwo gives the team credit for their win against Lakes.

“Everyone was super supportive of each other,” said Taiwo. “It wasn’t a one-man show. Everyone got involved.”

After losing D1 Wing Asa Thomas, there were questions about how dominant the team would be this year. However, Taiwo sees the loss of Thomas as an opportunity to establish a more well-rounded team.

“With such a great player like Asa, they are expected to and have the right to take all of the shots. This year, we have a much more balanced team that needs to step up,” said Taiwo.

The team understands that there’s still room for improvement though.

“In our loss against Hersey, we got sped up several times and didn’t make the simple plays. We gave up a lot of second-chance points and gave them easy drives to the basket, which we can’t let happen again,” said senior team manager Torian James. 

The Scouts face two big conference games this week: Waukegan (2-3) on Wednesday and Libertyville (3-3) on Saturday, both on the road.

“Waukegan’s entire goal is to speed us up, so it’ll be important that we slow down and stay disciplined. Against Hersey, we made too many mental errors that need to be fixed this week,” said Taiwo.

These next two games are undoubtedly crucial in terms of winning the conference, but there’s an added incentive with the big rivalry against Libertyville, who is always a team that’s “fun to win against,” said James.