GREENSBORO, N.C. — The turnovers started early and never really stopped coming. Twenty-seven of them by the time the final buzzer mercifully sounded on Friday night, each one a small lesson in what it means to be a team that’s still learning how to be a team.
St. Christopher fell 56-38 to New Garden Friends in their first preseason game, but the score itself feels almost beside the point. This was a collection of players wearing the same uniform for the first time, trying to find rhythm where none existed, searching for chemistry that can only come with time and trust.
“First game together,” is how anyone associated with the Sentinels will frame it, and they’re not wrong. But that doesn’t make the turnovers hurt any less.
The numbers tell a harsh story. St. Christopher shot just 35.9 percent from the field and a dismal 20 percent from three-point range, connecting on just three of 15 attempts from beyond the arc. They managed only four assists as a team while coughing the ball up 27 times. For context, New Garden Friends turned it over just eight times while dishing out eight assists.
This is what inexperience looks like under the lights.
Class of 2029 guard Brodie Clifton’s nine turnovers became the most visible symptom of a larger problem. Point guards are supposed to be the steady hand, the decision-maker, the one who makes everyone else better. But when you’re playing your first meaningful minutes with teammates you barely know, against defenders who’ve been together longer and play with the kind of confidence that comes from established chemistry, even simple passes become adventures.
Immanuel March added seven turnovers of his own, finishing with 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting. The ball movement that wins games at this level just wasn’t there yet. It couldn’t be. You can’t develop court vision in a week of practice.
But here’s what you need to know about Friday night: Sylva Okoro never stopped fighting.
Fourteen points. Twelve rebounds, five of them on the offensive glass. Okoro went 4-for-8 from the field and attacked the basket relentlessly, getting to the free-throw line 12 times. He made six of them, which isn’t great, but the willingness to keep going inside, to keep battling for position, to grab five offensive rebounds when nothing else was working — that’s the kind of effort that gives a young team something to build on.
“S. Okoro showed what this team can be,” one observer noted after the game. When your shooting percentages are in the basement and the turnovers are piling up, sometimes all you have is effort. Okoro gave them that.
The game was competitive in stretches. St. Christopher managed 11 points in both the second and third quarters, briefly finding some offensive rhythm. Justis Dorsett contributed seven points and hit a three-pointer late in the fourth quarter. Maddux March added 10 points and pulled down seven rebounds. These are the building blocks.
But the reality is that New Garden Friends controlled this game from start to finish. They scored in double digits in every quarter, hit 10 three-pointers to St. Christopher’s three, and most importantly, they took care of the basketball. When one team has 27 turnovers and the other has eight, the final score becomes inevitable.
The teaching moments came in waves. Harvey Jenkins picked up two fouls in 30 minutes, with only 3 shot attempts. Landry Jenkins went 0-for-3 from three-point range in limited minutes. Brantley Jenkins played 13 minutes and scored two points but turned it over twice.
This is what first games look like. This is what building something from scratch feels like.
The good news, if you’re looking for it, is that St. Christopher shot 50 percent from the free-throw line compared to New Garden Friends’ 20 percent. That’s a small victory, the kind of statistical anomaly that won’t mean much in the long run but at least offers something to point to. They also outrebounded New Garden Friends 25-24, with 16 defensive rebounds keeping possessions alive even when the offense couldn’t convert.
The Sentinels held New Garden Friends to 37.3 percent shooting from the field, which in another game, with fewer turnovers, might have been enough to keep things close. The defense showed flashes. The effort was there. The pieces just haven’t learned how to fit together yet.
Friday night was supposed to be preseason, a chance to work out the kinks before the real games begin Monday. In that sense, it served its purpose. St. Christopher learned that turning the ball over 27 times makes it impossible to win, no matter how hard Sylva Okoro works on the glass. They learned that shooting 20 percent from three-point range won’t cut it. They learned that four assists isn’t enough, that chemistry matters, that playing together for the first time is harder than it looks.
These are lessons that only come through experience. You can’t practice your way into cohesion. You have to live through nights like Friday, absorb the sting of a double-digit loss, and show up the next day ready to get better.
The season starts Monday. The real season, where wins and losses go in the books and matter in the standings. St. Christopher will be better then than they were Friday night, because they have to be. They’ll know each other better. They’ll trust each other more. The turnovers will decrease, the assists will increase, and somewhere in there, this collection of players will start to look like a team.
But first they had to play this game. First they had to learn what it feels like to lose together, to struggle together, to fight through adversity together.
Sylva Okoro’s 14 and 12 showed them what’s possible when effort meets opportunity. Now the rest of the team has to find their way there too.
The work begins now. Monday is coming fast.
