Varsity Boys Basketball defeated The Harker School 45-38 on Saturday, Nov. 30. The Matadors led a strong start, finishing the first quarter with a score of 19-6. However, MVHS struggled to maintain the lead as the pressure increased to close the gap, narrowing the difference to only five points by the third quarter. Despite this, the Matadors clenched their teeths and pushed through the fourth quarter, securing the win with a 7 point lead, with a final score of 45-38.
Head Coach Wade Nakamura says that although the team won, their performance could have been better— noticeably the lack of energy the team had towards the end. Nakamura explained that despite some players performing well through their excellent teamwork in areas of support, including defense and assists, the team began to deviate from their planned strategy when nearing the final stretch of the game, which resulted in Harker catching up. Nakamura says that maintaining enthusiasm and energy throughout the entire game makes a huge difference, especially when dealing with opponents that constantly keep their guard up.
“I just feel like our team came off the bench. A few guys in the second quarter didn’t provide us with the same energy as the first quarter and we can’t have that,” Nakamura said. “We need to have people who are ready to come in and give that same energy as the defensive end on the offensive end. Obviously we got stagnant as the game progressed, but we need to have consistent effort from top to bottom.”
Senior Stanley Du agrees with Nakamura — he says the team had stellar performance during the first half of the game, which ultimately led to the point difference. However, the energy faltered near the end, which led to a tighter finish than expected. Du believes the basketball team has much to improve, especially their ability in passing and shooting the ball.
“I felt pretty tired during the game since they were pressing up against us the whole game,” Du said. “I feel like the turnovers, not playing with enough energy and getting kind of stagnant on the offense led to Harker getting back into the game.”
Both Nakamura and Du agree that in the future, keeping team spirit and maintaining energy is essential to a successful game — where players are expected to keep overall morale up and finish strong regardless of their start. Nakamura adds that although MVHS scored a victory this time, many lessons were learned from how the game went.
“We won, but we didn’t play exactly as well as we started or continued to play at that high level,” Nakamura said. “We just have to work on keeping our intensity level high, continue to work hard and to have that consistent effort.”
