By Drew Christenson
The Heritage High boys basketball team is starting this season pretty much the way they ended it last season. Coming into their season ending loss to Eagleville in the Region 5A tournament last season they had 14 straight victories and a District 10A championship. They now stand at 5-0 with 3 district wins.

Last week, the Patriots took care of district business at home defeating cross county rival East Robertson on Tuesday 48-40 and Houston County 57-50 on Friday.

With the graduation of Jared Hill last year, the Patriots lost an outstanding outside shooter. However, Ross Albright has proven that he is not only dangerous driving to the basket but on the outside as well. He logged in four 3-pointers against the Indians and two against Houston County. He also led all scores last week with 19 and 28 points respectively.

East Robertson- The Indians gave Heritage a run for their money Tuesday keeping an even game going into half at 20 each. However, early in the third, Albright and Dylan Kemp added a pair of baskets that gave the Patriots the final lead. East closed a 13-point gap throughout the 4th but Heritage managed to hang on and secure the 8-point victory to get the district win. They will have to travel to East Robertson on January 15 for their second round of district play with the Indians. Last season, the Patriots split the season with East.

Houston County- Albright had 28 points in their win against the Irish Friday night while James Townes’ effort added 15 to the scoreboard including a 3-point shot. Four Houston County players ended their game on the bench with foul problems before the game was complete.

With a slim 3-point lead, Heritage hit 9-of-10 free throws in the last 4 minutes of the game to help secure the win 57-50.

The Irish led for almost the entire first half and went into the locker room with a 1-point lead. To start the 3rd quarter Tyrone White led a rally with a steal and 2-point lay-up to take the lead from Houston County 25-24. From there, the Patriots improved their ball control worked their way up to a 7-point lead to win the game.

Heritage split with the Irish in the regular season last year and eliminated them in the second round of the District 10A tournament. They will travel to Houston County on January 18 for a rematch.

“We have a young team and they have to learn how to handle success as well as defeat,” explained Head Coach Mike Petrone. “They’ve gotten to this point by playing team ball and helping each other. McEwen will be physical and it will probably go down to the wire.”

The boys basketball team is off tonight as F.C. Boyd has declared a forfeit and will take on McEwen at home Friday night for another district game.