 Well, coming off a section title and trip to state last season, Nevis boys basketball is experienced and hungry for more. They're off to an undefeated start this year and ready to make some noise once again in section five. They tore up the turf this past fall with a runner-up finish in nine-man. Now they're doing the same on the court. The Tigers are off to an eight-nose start and ranked number three in class 1A. We always give it 110%. Our defense plays great. We like to focus on defense, and that's what we pride ourselves on, just like in football. We like to play defense, and that's what wins us games. And that's been true in all eight of them this season, only giving up an average 36.9 points per contest, not allowing a single opponent to reach 50 thus far. We just play together really well because we talk and we communicate. You know, like, he's going to help me here if I get beat. He's going to, we all rebound. We all go to the hoop, and it's just everybody's aggressive. And even though offensively they faced the challenge of replacing leading scorer Griffon Chase's production, the attack is a little more balanced, already putting up 112 and 91 points this season. It's a little bit different not having the go-to guy. I mean, now we have four or five guys that can put the ball in the hoop a little bit less, but I mean, we're still looking for that second or third guy, second or third go-to guy like Mike. It also helps having experience up and down the roster with guys having success in multiple sports and playing in big games. We got a lot of players this year with a lot of experience, not only in basketball, but in other sports too, playing at a high level. So that's been a big level of success for us this year, just having guys in the right spots, knowing what they're doing and knowing how to handle the situation that they're in. Now the motto carries over from football. They want to continue to earn it, starting with the conference championship. That's always a good life for a single year. We want to get past that. We want to get a high seat in the section tournament. Obviously we want to make it out of the section tournament and make it back to state. Take it one game in time throughout the season though. Take it slow because we got a lot of seniors through the last season. We want to make it last one. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.