Varsity Boys Basketball lost to Saratoga High School 53-49 in overtime. After starting out with strong defense, MVHS pulled ahead of SHS by the end of the first half with a score of 19-15. However, SHS kept the game close, and in the final 10 seconds of the game hit a 3-pointer to tie the game 45-45, sending it to overtime. During overtime MVHS and SHS traded 2-point shots until SHS got 2 2-point shots to tip the score in their favor.
Junior and center Sean Foo feels that the game could have gone much better for MVHS. Foo says that the team played good defense in the first half but lost their initial burst of energy in the second half, allowing SHS to come back.
“Down the stretch we let them come back when we had a lead, and it’s just frustrating,” Foo said. “I feel like in the first half we had some pretty good defense, we limited them to 15 points, but we let them score more than double in the second half. We had a lot of energy in the first half, and that is what contributed to our lead in the first half.”
Senior and guard Stanley Du believes that the 3-pointer that led to a tie could have been prevented if SHS did not get the rebound. However, he believes that this game was also a learning opportunity.
“I probably could have hit a few more box outs,” Du said. “And I probably wouldn’t have given up that many boards that led to threes, but I just got to go back and watch the film and see where to box out next time.”
Initially, MVHS won eight of their nine preseason games. However, with the loss to SHS, MVHS’ record falls to 2-2, and Du believes that the next games that MVHS has coming up are not going to be easy.
“We’re heading into a tougher section of the league,” Du said. “So this is a good test for us and a wake up call that we need to play better in order to beat these better teams.”