The Leopards (4-6) take on Royse City on the road on Friday, Dec. 18, before facing their first district game of the season on Dec. 22 at home against the McKinney North Bulldogs (11-3).

“It’s been really good to see some of the roles develop in tournament play,” head coach Kyle Herrema said. “Unfortunately we have had some injuries so we are having to shuffle our lineup a little bit, so we are adjusting. Tournament play has got us in rhythm, and we have played some good teams and done really well. Ultimately we want to start getting better for district play going into the first game on Tuesday.”

McKinney North is led by junior, Jared Pearre, who has given the Bulldogs a boost every game to surge past teams so far this season.

Lovejoy is in district 10-5A along with some of the top basketball programs in the state including McKinney North, Prosper, Wylie, and Wylie East, so they will have to play tough to win against bigger and strong teams.

“I think our goal in district is to clean up some things that we haven’t really been doing well,” Herrema said. “We have turned the ball over a little more than we wanted to, so we are trying to work
on cleaning that up. We are [also] working on blocking out a little to limit teams to one shot [per possession].”

Herrema added that the players are beginning to establish individual roles.

“Braden Ledebur has played really well along with Drew Hawley, and Jackson Carswell has had some games where he has come out and scored some big points for us,” Herrema said. “I think that we are playing some good basketball right now. We just have to get healthy.”

Last game against Mesquite Horn (7-6), Ledebur and Carswell combined for a total of 41 points. Horn outscored the Leopards 21-15 in the fourth quarter to pull out a 64-59 win.