The Gibson Southern Titans boys’ junior varsity basketball team clinched its first home win of the season on Tuesday, January 14 against Vincennes Lincoln.

The boys came together for some of the best playing not only this season but also since coach Mark Monroe took the helm as the JV coach.

There were a couple things I took from that game last night,” Monroe said. “First of all, that was the first time this year we played from start to finish against a half decent team, so that was probably the number one. This is the first time within the two years that I’ve been coaching that we actually expanded a halftime lead. We turned around from a 16-point lead and turned it into a 25-point lead. Those are the two biggest takeaways, but the other part is in just about every aspect of the game everybody came in and played with a purpose.”

The Titans started playing well early in the game. The team started with a full court press, which fit their play and fit well for them. After multiple quick buckets in the first quarter and fueled by a strong defensive performance, the junior varsity squad ended with a 10-point lead. 

At the end of the first half the Titans possessed a commanding lead over the Alices, 36-16. 

“Everyone on the team got involved throughout the game, not just the starters, and in turn we all had a lot of fun,” sophomore Oliver Hamilton said. “Our defense was especially good in this game, which accelerated our offensive game to another level of play, which got the starters and bench players in tune mentally with the game.”

Freshman Ethan Spindler lead the Titan offense, totaling 19 points. His scoring was followed by freshman Garrett Reid with 17 and Jacob Spindler with 15. 

¨We had a lot of fun playing throughout the game, which I think helped our play go to another level,” sophomore Mason Yancey. “We out-hustled them too, which was one of our main focus going into the game. I think at the end, though, our defense is what helped us come to the margin of victory that we did.”

The Titans held out and eventually won the game, 75-50. 

Gibson Southern will play its next game on Friday, January 17, against the Princeton Tigers at home.