The Redhawks girls’ and boys’ varsity basketball teams soared to success as they took down the Independence Knights in District 9-5A play Tuesday night.

As usual, the girls started off the night.

The Knights came out fast, forcing the Redhawks to call an early timeout, trailing 12-4 in the first quarter.

After the timeout, sophomore Keyera Roseby gave the Redhawks a spark. Coming off the bench, Roseby knocked down a three. Soon after, Roseby made back to back plays on the defensive end with a block and a steal, followed by an and-one layup.

“I knew that my team needed a spark,” Roseby said. “I just came in and really tried to give my team some energy and get us going.

The Redhawks would go on to win 58-40 to improve to 12-1 in District 9-5A (26-5 overall)..

“I thought last night we came out pretty slow but after halftime we kind of got it together,” assistant coach Dawnielle Kiel said. “[We] thought we saw some things that we been working on practicing all week on our transitions, so it was good to see that we had been working on this week finally came into action during the game.”

The boys’ took the court after the girls’ team secured the W, and followed up with a 53-49 win of their own to move into third place in District 9-5A (8-4, 22-6 overall).

Down by 10 in the 4th quarter, the Redhawks stormed back with junior Jonathan Dupree-Buford making the gym erupt with his put-back slam over the Knights defense to tie the game at 47 with three minutes to go on the game clock. Minutes later, Dupree-Buford showed off his athleticism once more as he blocked a three point attempt that could have won it for the Knights.

“The putback felt good, gave me a little boost to keep pushing,” Dupree-Buford said. “In my head on that last play I was just thinking ‘scramble, scramble’ because I just saw my teammate get screened, I went out to contest the shot and I realized I blocked the shot.”

After the blocked shot by Dupree-Buford, junior Tristen Kailey was put on the foul line where he sealed the game against his former school.

“It was a good feeling,” Kailey said. “To knock down a couple free throws to seal the game against my old school, it felt good.”