Basketball Looks Ahead after Defeat
January 24, 2017
Varsity boys’ basketball lost their last home game, 49-44, at the hands of the Acalanes Dons on February 10.
Though it was the night on which the team formally recognized seniors, during the game it was Hunter Clarke and junior Will Cummins who stood out for Cougars, each scoring 11 points in spite of the loss.
“We’ve got to give credit to Acalanes- they’re a very good team. They played really hard on defense and we struggled at times to score the ball from half court,” said head varsity coach Steven Dyer. “We had a lot of guys do really well, and we still have a lot of stuff we’re playing for.”
With a 16-8 record, the team is expecting to make the NCS playoffs and is still in contention for a league title.
“It was a really hard-played game, and it was one of those 50/50 games where it comes down to the wire. We went really hard against Miramonte last week, and it was just one of those games,” said senior Zach Duffy. “Obviously winning would have been great, but if we had played with a bit more energy, it would’ve been a different game. There’s a chance we could still win league, and focusing on that is going to be more important than 1 loss.”
One state of note from the game was the disparity in free throw opportunities. Acalanes had the majority of attempts, with 3 in the 4th quarter. Nevertheless, Dyer declined to place the responsibility for the outcome on the officials. “I don’t think we lost this game because of the refs, not at all. You can always say that you disagree with something, but we don’t overestimate calls and they’re doing their best jobs,” said Dyer. “We make as many mistakes on the court as they do doing their thing.”
Veteran Quinn Cuddihy agreed. “There were plenty of bad calls, but you always get those. You can’t use those as an excuse when things go wrong. I think we’re really okay with where we are right now. We’re going to keep working hard in practice, and keep pushing each other to play the best we can,” he said.
According to Cuddihy, his team needs to look ahead rather than dwell on the loss. “You always go back and think ‘What if this happened? What if that happened?’, but at the end of the day we still lost and you can’t go back to change anything. It’s not worth thinking about in my opinion,” he said.
In reference to the senior recognitions, Dyer had positive things to say about the graduating players. “I want to thank them for all their contributions throughout these 4 years. It’s a big thing, playing Campo basketball and giving 4 years, and we ask a lot of them. I’m really proud of all 6 of those guys. They’re great guys, and they’re tough kids. They’ll bounce back from this loss.”
The Cougars are currently 16-8 for the year.
