By Joshua Woolverton 

The MACA Lions boys’ varsity basketball team defeated the Rockbridge Academy Scots by a score of 51-43 on Friday, Jan. 10. A strong third quarter and team defense was the deciding factor leading to the homecoming night victory.

“We always try to play pretty aggressive,” MACA senior Nathan Stein said. “We are a quick team and being able to force turnovers and get quick points off of that led to the win.”

Stein put up 15 points and sophomore Connor Gilbert led the Lions in scoring with 16 points while also picking up six of the team’s 15 steals.  

“We trapped pretty well in the corners and got on the ground for loose balls which fired us up,” Stein said.

MACA coach Glenn Teixeira said that defense ultimately led to the win but he thought the team played a little sloppy in the first half before righting the ship following halftime. Glenwood Community Center’s gym is a little thinner than a regular gym which caused some unforced errors both on offense and defense.

“It’s supposed to be home court advantage but we don’t play here that much so it was a little deceptive,” Teixeira said. “We should have gotten more turnovers but we made an adjustment in the third quarter and got a lot more steals out of that.”

MACA’s next game will be at 7 p.m. at Harford Christian School on Friday, Jan. 17.