What was a close game after the first quarter, became a blowout as the game continued.
AHS varsity basketball played against Mount Vernon at home on Jan. 12. Mount Vernon is ranked last in AHS conference while AHS is ranked third.

“We did not play to the best of our ability and lost a game we should have easily won,” junior guard Abbey Yared said.

The game started out slow for both teams during the first quarter, seeing that most of the points came from free throws.
No team had gotten the momentum to put them ahead. The final score after the first quarter was 7-6 in favor of Mount Vernon.
During the second quarter, though, Mount Vernon looked to be the dominant team as they pulled ahead and outscored the Atoms by seven. The score at halftime read 17-25 Mount Vernon in the lead.

“Our first quarters are usually slow, and we do not pick things up until the second half,” Yared said.

During the third quarter, AHS started to accelerate and pick up their game. The third quarter was practically a draw as AHS was only out-scored 8-9, but they were still down by eleven points.
In the final quarter, the Mount Vernon Majors just kept getting more opportunities to score and extended their lead.
The Atoms could not close the game out and fell short of a win.

“Overall, we need to make more plays in the second half of the game in order to win,” Coach Deidrich Gilreath said.

To perform well and win against T.C. Williams by a score of 60-56, the Atoms needed to work on their offense.

“Our strengths are our strong defense and our improving mentality which will help us in our success for the rest of the season,” Gilreath said.

“We watched a lot of film to prepare for TC Williams, and went over many offensive and defensive sets to try to throw them off of their game,” Yared said.
Though the Atoms lost a game they should have won, they went on to beat the struggling TC William Titans who have only one win.

“In practice, we need to learn how to start a game strong in order to set the tone and pace for the entire game,” Yared said.
Additionally, AHS has a rematch on Jan. 30 at Mount Vernon in which they can redeem themselves from their last loss.

“During the game against T.C. we did well with playing physical and executing on offense which is what are intended goals were,” Gilreath said.
AHS will play T.C. Williams again on Jan. 23 at 7 pm for a rivalry game.