WJ’s boys varsity basketball came in with four wins and three losses, and had a tough test coming up against Wootton, who had a 5-2  record.

Junior starters, forward Michael Lumbuku and center Sean Poosson were unable to participate in the game. Poosson is out an extended period of time due to illness.

The game started out slowly for the Wildcats, as several turnovers put them in a hole early, falling to an 11-point deficit after the first quarter. WJ battled back in the second and third quarter, outscoring Wootton in each in order to get a one-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Wootton hit three three-pointers, two by senior guard Willis Ibeh. The Wildcats were unable to come back from the Patriots’ run and fell with a final score of 56 to 51.

The game gave WJ a 1-1 record in the conference.

“It was our second conference game and it was important to beat Wootton on their court,” said Wildcat senior Ryan Lynch. “This was a tough loss, but luckily we’re going to see them again later in the season at WJ. ”

Kevin Gill a Junior Kevin Gill tied a game high 11 points. Seniors Halid Hamadi and Harrison Gibert each notched nine points.

Coach Mark Karver was proud of the team due to the fact that the boys gave it their all, and just fell a little short.

Karver believed his team is “continuing to grow as a team and gets better every day,” and he is looking forward to a post-season run.

The game is early in the year and the team still has eight more conference games to try to get a good post-season seed. Although the Wildcats are only 4-4, all of their losses have been by eight points or less, and two of them are only by five points or less.

The team’s next game is Friday Jan 13 against Churchill at WJ, the game begins at 7 p.m. Wootton’s highly anticipated rematch at WJ is on Jan 24 at 7 p.m. The regular season ends on Feb. 21 at home against Rockville.