Sports

In their first game with a more complete varsity team, the Graham Steers fought hard against the Henrietta Bearcats but came up short at the end in a 50-43 loss.

As football season came to an end for the Steers last week, some members of that squad joined the basketball team for practices and this first game. There will still be some more blending together and chemistry that needs to get worked on, but this game on the road was a start for what this team could be.

Just a few days removed from a strong performance in the Haskell tournament, the Lady Blues continued their winning December with a 47-32 victory on the road at Windthorst.

The win put Graham above .500 on the season with an 8-7 record as the team nears the end of the non-district schedule. After this weekend’s tournament in Lubbock, the Lady Blues will have two remaining scheduled non-district games before they enter district play in the first week of the new year.

The Lady Blues kicked off the month of December winning four out of five games, with three of those wins coming last weekend at a tournament in Haskell.

After Graham defeated Eastland on the road a few days before, the team headed to Haskell where they took three out of four games. The Lady Blues defeated Jayton, Haskell and Quanah while taking a loss against Seymour.

The results moved Graham to 7-7 on the season with a handful of non-district games remaining. Listed below are results, scoring stats and a small write-up of each game at the tournament.

It was a weekend full of good competition for the Graham Steers at the Breckenridge tournament, where the team finished with a 3-2 record overall and a couple of great wins.

The team continues to play well, as players progress in their knowledge of the game, Graham’s system and how to best work as a team. Listed below are the results of each game from the weekend with scoring stats and a small write-up of each contest.


Steers v. Hawley (W), 42-39

Both teams wore the same uniforms as the first time they met earlier this season — Graham in black and Brock in white — but that was the only aspect of Friday’s game that resembled the previous match-up.

After the Steers took care of business against the Eagles in November, a 38-0 Graham victory, the two teams reconvened in the Region 1-4A Division II final with a trip to the state semifinal on the line. On a cold, rainy night in Stephenville, in a battle that required three overtimes to determine a winner, Graham’s season came to an end in a 12-10 loss to Brock.

In the last week, Graham’s teams have done quite a bit of winning. The Steers’ football team punched its ticket to the region final with a win over Glen Rose, and the Lady Blues basketball team took care of business in a win over Eastland.

Fayth Bryer of the Lady Blues basketball squad and Brayden Riggins of Steers football have been selected as Athletes of the Week for their efforts in Graham’s big wins.

Fayth Bryer, Lady Blues basketball

Graham may have only ended up winning by 16 points, but the reality of the team’s 67-51 win over Eastland is that the Steers dominated the game from start to finish.

Sixteen points is not even a close gap, but it’s the closest the Mavericks got after about two minutes into the second quarter. Graham’s Nikolas Wankowicz drove into the lane for a layup to make it 20-4 in the Steers’ favor shortly into the second frame, and Eastland never got any closer.

Following a weeklong break, the Graham Lady Blues came back with one of their best offensive performances of the season in a 60-53 win over the Eastland Lady Mavs.

For a team that’s gone through hot and cold streaks in each game, the Lady Blues were solid across the board Tuesday night. The team scored 15 points in the first quarter, 14 in the second, 15 in the third and 16 in the fourth.

It was a sign of progress and maturity for head coach Baylee Thompson’s young team. Her team is learning to let the game come to them and sticking with what they know works.

The Newcastle Ladycats volleyball team saw its season end in the beginning of November in a bi-district game against Strawn.

While it was a disappointing end for this squad that was hoping for more, there were bright spots to take from the game and the entire year.

With the conclusion of the season, the Ladycats were awarded some postseason honors for their excellent work both on the court and in the classroom.

Only a few games into the season, the Graham Steers varsity basketball players have learned a lot about themselves.

Through three games as of this writing, the team is 1-2 with some contrasting results in each of the contests played so far. The team started the year with a 51-40 win over Millsap, took a tough 41-12 loss to Bowie due to offensive struggles and then dropped a close match-up with nearby Breckenridge 49-45.

Though the results have varied, there’s still a lot of basketball left to play. Not to mention the fact that the team isn’t at full strength yet.