LOGANVILLE, Ga. — Before the first official game of the 2025-26 season could take place, the Eastside Eagles took the trip into Gwinnett County to scrimmage the Grayson Rams.

The Eagles fell short in both scrimmages against one of the state’s powerhouse programs, but both groups competed and gave themselves a good test before the first game of the year.

In the first matchup of the day, the Lady Eagles fell 39-66 to the reigning Class AAAAAA runner up Lady Rams.

Eastside’s boys team battled and kept it close in the final game, but Grayson ultimately pulled away late to win 74-62.

Eastside boys keep it close against formidable opponent

The Eagles made it a game that the Rams had to earn, but head coach Dorrian Randolph did not shy away from the way his team can improve after the scrimmage.

“Grayson is a great team. We battled and I saw that, but we had way too many turnovers that were our mistakes — unforced turnovers,” Randolph said. “We are lucky it only stayed at 12. We are out of shape.They had about 12 transition points that were us just not sprinting back. Overall, we did what I wanted to do, which was compete. It took us a minute, we seemed pretty scared in the first half, but that third quarter we woke up.”

The Eagles broke out to an early lead that saw the team once lead 7-2, but Grasyon began to slowly chip away and mount its own lead.

Grayson outscored Eastside 20-12 in the second quarter as the Rams took a 44-27 lead into the break.

However, the third quarter proved to be the opposite as the Eagles outscored Grayson 18-11.

“We usually start the third quarter slowly, so it was good to see that we were able to come out and start fast,” Randolph said. “We got a lot of things to work on, but overall [it was] not bad.”

MJ Curry, Austin Leonard and Don Thomas were the main focal points for the Rams as the three led the team in points.

Grayson has shown its ability to be a high-flying team over the last few years, but the majority of the team’s success on Wednesday came from the field.

The sharpshooting ability from Thomas proved to be the biggest decider on Wednesday as the senior knocked down almost everything on his way to a game-high 26 points.

For the Eagles, it proved to be a strong mix as four players finished in double digits.

Iverson Freeman, Christian Gatewood,  Jordan Poole and Josiah Johnson all finished with quality games.

“Once we started handling the ball and stopped turning it over, our guards battled,” Randolph said. “Jordan got in for the start and hit some big shots. If we are making shots, I think we will be pretty tough. At the same time, they were making shots and they were already ahead. There are times where we play selfish ball and try to match what they are doing and that's just not us. We played decent defense but there was a lot of un-discipline from our team.”

Neither player reached double digits, but Jevon Sullivan and Roman Sullivan both played key parts for the Eagles too as the team’s guard depth was on full display.

The Rams had chances to create additional separation late, but the Eagles continued to find ways to keep it a 10-point game as almost every player scored in the final quarter for Eastside.

Baker and Lady Eagles get tough test ahead of game one

The Lady Eagles and first-year head coach Rod Baker took on the reigning Class AAAAAA runner up in the form of the Grayson Lady Rams.

Grayson returned many of its key players from a year ago and it showed as the Lady Rams mounted a strong early lead that it never gave up.

“I was excited about last night,” Baker said. “I was impressed that we fought till the end. We knew it was going to be a tough task, but from last night’s results I am even more excited for the season. I think we are going to be even more competitive.”

Even then, the Lady Eagles continued to battle and score with the help of seniors Ari Carter and Jarilix Riveira.

“It’s huge because the other girls look up to them,” Baker said. “We are going to need them, we just need to keep them healthy.”

Perhaps the brightest spot of the game for Baker came in the team’s defensive performance.

Baker’s plan of establishing a strong press worked, and he noted how Wednesday’s result can pay dividends for the team down the road.

“I told them in the locker room, ‘They struggled with our press and we broke theirs easily,'" Baker said. “Three times in a row we broke it, I was really impressed. Historically they could have put up 100 points on us but we played really good defense last night.”

For the boys team, the next matchup will take place Saturday, Nov. 8 when they compete against Columbia at the SWD Shootout at Southwest Dekalb High School.

After that, both teams will host their home opener against Creekside Christian Academy on Tuesday, Nov. 11.