Varsity Boys Basketball fell 52-50 to Saratoga High School on Thursday, Jan. 18, maintaining a 2-3 league record and a fifth place standing in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League El Camino division. Although the team initially started off in the lead, it fell behind 36-24 by the end of the first half. While the Matadors picked up the pace, scoring 20 points in the fourth quarter, their attempt to overcome the shortcoming ended in a narrow lead in favor of SHS. Sophomore Sean Foo says that it took the team some time to adjust to the game.
“We already knew about our opponents and what kind of players they had, so we prepared our defense and offense so that we had the best chance against them,” Foo said. “I feel like we came in too calm and we underestimated our opponents, so that early lead kind of shocked us.”
During the fourth quarter, SHS already had five team fouls which put it into the penalty, allowing MVHS to take two free throws instead of one whenever SHS committed additional fouls. MVHS capitalized on this, and tried to gain the opportunity to get the free throws. With less than three minutes on the clock in the fourth quarter, MVHS was trailing 44-39 but senior and point guard Matthew Lau attempted and made two free throws after a foul, pulling the score up to 44-41.
However, a turnover led SHS to gain a 46-41 lead within seconds, which MVHS tried to catch up to with another two successful free throws by Lau, resulting in a 46-43 score. Both teams made baskets, and when senior and shooting guard Ruchir Banerjee scored a three-pointer with a little over a minute of the game left, both teams were tied at 48-48. The back-and-forth plays continued, and the teams were tied at 50-50 in the last several seconds of the game.
Foo says that the team was hoping to send the game into overtime, if not for a win, and explains that several time outs called by both sides in the last few minutes of the game helped the players focus and not make mistakes, but the SHS’s possession seconds before the game ended allowed it to score a successful two point basket. The Matadors gained possession with less than four seconds left, however, they were unable to score, ultimately ending in the close score of 52-50. Head coach Wade Nakamura attributes the loss to the team’s excessive turnovers.
“We gave ourselves the chance to attack them at the end, but gave the ball right back to them and didn’t block out on the free throw and a player scored — that’s a killer,” Nakamura said. “Today, I felt like we beat ourselves because we just gave the other team just too many opportunities. Less talented teams may beat a more talented team if they work harder and play more together. Continuing to get better every day, that’s our goal.”
