Basketball is a back-and-forth game, where teams are neck-in-neck trying to score the most points. The Lenoir City High School Basketball Team has several games throughout the season, but some games are more intense than others. Matthew Deacon (11) shares his thoughts of playing in the first winning game of the season against Carter High School.

“It was great, you know, a lot of excitement. We came out and just played hard and it’s a great feeling to get started,” Deacon said.

The final score of the game was 73 points for Lenoir City and 54 points for Carter. Lenoir City played close this game and tried to improve their small mistakes. The team worked very well together by pivoting and passing the ball around to make space for the players to put up baskets.

“[Coach Brewster] is just always talking about getting after them and like we are going to be pressing them, so we want to create turnovers for that, we are not just doing it for no reason, you got to get after them,” Deacon said.

Deacon has been able to rely on his teammates and spend some time recovering on the bench. This team has played in and out, rotating around their players to make sure they don’t get burnt out. 

 “I was talking to Peyton [Oliver (10)] before the game and he had a lot of excitement coming into a starting position this game, and he was great I mean he brought a lot of new energy that we didn’t have, just crashing the board stuff like that, and it’s real nice to have people to rely on, if you just get tired we got the same crew coming in,” Deacon said. 

Basketball is full of running up and down the court, stopping, starting, and scoring shots. Players need to get in good shape before the season starts which takes several hours of conditioning. This conditioning has helped the players get after their opponents and helped them stay close.

“I’m good. I think we could play another game, we conditioned hard over summer time, so I think we are ready,” Deacon said.

Deacon has continued to improve throughout his high school basketball career, with the several hours of training he has done with the team, he has shown his potential and continues to play in the varsity games.