In true Lick-Wilmerding High School spirit, the annual basketball event at the Golden State Warrior’s Oracle Arena kept fans and foes engaged with losses, wins, formal asks, and circus acts.

Both the boys’ and girls’ games started out incredibly close with outstanding defense from the Tigers as well as our rivals, University’s Red Devils. No team scored more than 23 points before the halves.

Boys: As the last remaining seconds of the pre-game warm-up came to a close, the announcer had a special question for a special person in the audience. Kaneem Thornton ’14, had the announcer ask his girlfriend, Olivia Tom ’15, to Winter Formal!

The tight defense had the Tigers and Devils scoring low, with LWHS winning 10-6 at the end of the first quarter. After a heated second quarter, the Tigers were only down by one at halftime: 23-22.

Unfortunately, the Devils stepped it up while the Tigers stumbled through the second half. Even with senior David Allen ’14 and sophomore Micah Elan ’16 scoring 13 and 9 points respectively, the team fell short by 12 points. Devils won, 46-34.

Girls: Starting out slowly but surely, the girls were down 9-4 at the end of the first quarter, but they scored 10 in the second while the Devils scored only 6. They, too, were only down by one point at halftime: 15-14.

For the remaining half, our Tigers scored 15 points each quarter while the Devils scored only 15 in the third and fourth quarters combined! Leading the girls to a win were junior Julia Thompson ’15 (11 points), freshmen Ayzhiana Basallo ’17 and Maya Burris ’17 (both with 10 points) and senior Toby Harris ’14 (4 points and 9 rebounds). Tigers won, 44-30.

Equally as exciting as the games themselves were the halftime shows. LWHS siblings Or Oppenheimer ’14 and Ron Oppenheimer ’16 and their fellow circus mate (and University attendee) Annie Fraser led the performance with a series of fluid acrobatic moves through metal loops not much bigger than they were.

As the crowd marveled at the incredible show, the close score of the boys’ game had everyone anxious.

Although much later in the day, the excitement of the girls’ prospective win had the crowd maintaining the roar.

To amplify the excitement, LWHS Dance Ensemble stormed the court for an explosive performance to a unique compilation of songs.

Once again, romance overtook the event as one of the dancers, Jacob Bindman ’15, asked a fellow dancer Alyssa Scott ’14 to the Winter Formal!

Win or lose, the event at Oracle has rarely been solely about basketball. The whole environment attracts not only students but also  teachers, alumni, parents and families. After a tough loss for the boys, they came out into the audience with pride to support their peers in the next game