Basketball season is speeding up this month with both the men’s and women’s teams heading on to away games.

The women’s team continued their competitive season with a game that resulted in double overtime and a loss for Humboldt State.

“This (week) will be a tough stretch for us,” Coach Michelle Bento-Jackson said. “It’s a road trip that involves both a northern and southern team so the travel, in general, will be more gruesome than normal road trips.”

The team will travel to play against East Bay and Dominguez Hill. East Bay is currently undefeated and, similar to HSU has a strong defense.

“We had an outbreak of COVID within our team,” Coach Bento-Jackson said. “Since we came back from break we only had two practices under our belt.”

With the team recovered and back to regular practice they have their spirits high and are keeping up with COVID-19 protocol to have safe games throughout the season.

The men’s team is continuing their competitive season which has been a struggle with more COVID-19 outbreaks.

“I’m always worried about one of my guys getting COVID,” Coach Tae Norwood said. “We test frequently. We test before we play our opponents.”

The players are also very responsible for their personal safety against COVID-19 with social distancing, wearing their masks, and avoiding large gatherings. The players have a 100% vaccination rate and a 95% booster rate.

“I really focus on the effort from my guys,” Coach Norwood said. “They play hard but we gotta do a better job of executing it.”

The basketball players will be continuing to practice and work on their defense before their games against East Bay and Dominguez Hill this week. AJ Sims is back and continuing as the leadership of the team and the best shooter. With more players stepping up, the team is hopeful about the rest of the season.

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