On Wednesday November 18th, Ayala High School and Walnut High School would face off in their first games of the basketball season in a non-conference game at Walnut. With these games serving to be the first for both teams, they both went into this game hoping to step off on the right foot for their first game and attempt to build upon their win. Ayala would receive their first loss of the season right away as Walnut would start their season off with a win, ending with a final score of 91-73.

Ayala would start the first half of the game with receiving the tip-off and the first possession of the game with #25 Jeremy Serrano making a three-pointer to help put Ayala up with an early lead into the game. Ayala and Walnut would continue fighting to maintain their leads over their opponents, but Walnut would run away with it as the quarter continued to play out with their lead starting with their 1-10 run. The first quarter would end with Walnut maintaining the lead over Ayala with a score of 29-18. The second quarter would have both teams well on equal pace with each other scoring wise, but Ayala would struggle to help get back their lead in the first and would eventually end the first half 38-55. 

To start the second half, Ayala would start off with the ball hoping to make the right plays in order to start a comeback and pull themselves closer to their first win. It would be Walnut though to receive the first points of the second half and third quarter with #4 Adrian Tripplett making a two-point field goal. Ayala would eventually make a slight comeback and be able to come out of the third quarter scoring more points, starting to gain some footing cutting the lead down to 13 points with a score of 55-68. Walnut though, in the fourth quarter, would continue to outperform Ayala in scoring and would finish the game with a score of 91-73 and hand Ayala already their first defeat of the season.

Looking at this game, Ayala will look back on this loss and learn from their mistakes in this game and attempt to shake off this defeat and look to bring in their first win against Charter Oak at home on Friday November 18. Their opponent, Walnut, though will hope to extend their streak and build upon this win entering their next game against Alta Loma on Friday, November 18th.