Homestead’s boys basketball team fell short of the Whitefish Bay Blue Dukes 66-60 on Parent Night on Thursday, Feb. 26 in the team’s last regular season game.

Jaylen Key, senior, led the way for the Highlanders, scoring 22 points, but it was not enough for the team to escape the Blue Dukes as the team did not put up a well enough defensive fight to keep them in it.

“As a team, we struggled to put runs together and consistently get stops on defense,” Mitch Sutton, senior, said.

Jacob Urban, junior, agreed with Sutton. “We didn’t cut off baseline drives and they shot at a high percentage. It is frustrating to lose this many games in a season but it gives us fire,” Urban said.

Key also agreed with Sutton and Urban, saying, “We did not perform on the defensive end. We gave up too many points in transition and gave them too many open shots.”

However, with the setbacks on defense, the team kept the game close with its offense. “We played very well on offense. We pushed the ball and took advantage our our size inside,” Key stated.

“We did a good job of getting good looks at the basket and working the ball inside,” Sutton continued.

Losing to a conference rival in a close game in the last contest of the regular season very well might motivate the team to step up and get a winning streak going. “This loss definitely motivates us to get on a roll as we move into the playoffs,” Sutton said.

Justen Newby, junior, said, “This loss gives us something to remember while we are playing, to not take a single shot off especially with it being playoffs.”

The late defeat “just gives us more motivation for our upcoming playoff games,” Key said. “We know how good we can be and if we play good defense and play smart, we will be able to go deep in the playoffs.”

As Sutton summarized on behalf of his teammates, “This loss definitely motivates us to get on a roll as we move into the playoffs.”