In its most disappointing outing of the season to date, the Mathews High School girls’ varsity basketball team dropped last Thursday’s home contest to the visiting Middlesex Chargers, 41-35.

It was entirely different team than the one that defeated West Point earlier in the week. Middlesex showed up ready to play and thoroughly dominated the home team.

“Middlesex was ready to play from the opening tip, they out-rebounded and out-hustled us from the beginning,” said MHS head coach Tommy Eriksen. “It was very disheartening after the way we played against West Point.

“This week we go back to the drawing board with focusing on layups, foul shots and playing defense without fouling,” he added.

Middlesex took a nine-point halftime lead into the locker room. Mathews played harder in the second half, cutting the lead to three at one point, but did not play smart basketball on the defensive side of ...