With a tragic overtime collapse, the Palo Alto High School boys’ basketball team (0-4) fell Wednesday to Homestead High School (6-1), 44-55, in a nail-biting game.
Despite the Vikings’ continuing struggle to find their first win of the season, they have maintained a positive atmosphere on the team, according to head coach Jeff LaMere.
“I think it’s fun to be playing basketball again,” LaMere said. “It’s great to have the kids in the gym, and they’re playing hard. It’s great to have togetherness and some comradery and that’s really neat with what’s been going on with COVID and everyone having to be so distanced.”
After a potential COVID-19 exposure, the Vikings spent the previous week quarantining as a precaution, and according to LaMere, hoped to bounce back from a rough streak.
“We came off a 10-day COVID pause so we didn’t practice for 10 whole days before we played Cupertino, and we just wanted to start to get in better shape and shake off the rust,” LaMere said.
Junior guard Sebastian Chancellor said the team fought hard, approaching the game with an optimistic mindset.
“We come in every game thinking we’re going to win every game, and we came into this game thinking the same thing … we came in strong-willed today for sure,” Chancellor said.
After struggling to get a shot off, the Viking offense started coming together in the second quarter. Junior point guard Max Bonstetter scored a three-point shot mid-quarter, initiating Paly’s momentum, and additional baskets from Raush and Chancellor brought the score to a 15-15 tie going into the second half.
According to Rausch, the Vikings’ efforts to improve on their weak points began to pay off this game.
“We have had trouble rotating the ball and getting good looks through our offense,” Rausch said. “ I think we did a lot better job of that ... I think we’re on the rise to something good.”
The Vikings dominated over the Mustangs in the third quarter, with a stellar offense that was supplemented by strong defensive plays. Senior point guard Andrew Li led on offense, scoring eight points in the quarter by sinking a three-point shot and additional baskets. On defense, Rausch and junior guard Addison Lee intercepted passes, shutting down Homestead’s momentum.
According to LaMere, the Vikings’ performance in the third quarter shows their potential to improve and have a strong second half of the season.
“We came out and scored 15 points that quarter, we shared the ball, we got open looks, defensively we locked in, we limited our turnovers,” LaMere said. “I thought we looked like the team we can be, we just need to be able to string more of those moments together.”
However, with a change of pace in the fourth quarter, Paly’s defense crumbled, and the Vikings yielded 16 points while only scoring eight, bringing the score to a 38-38 tie and sending the game into overtime.
The Mustangs pulled ahead in overtime, continuously drawing fouls and sinking six free throws in the last 50 seconds before the Vikings could make another basket, bringing the score up, 44-55.
According to Li, the team struggled to recover after repeatedly turning over the ball in overtime.
“We were excited going into overtime, but we had a stretch in the beginning of the overtime where a couple of guys turned the ball over,” Li said. “And it’s hard to climb back from seven or eight points within a span of three minutes. So we were put in a tough spot down the stretch and it’s pretty hard to carve ourselves out.”
“We don’t lose because of certain individuals. I don’t care if, ‘Oh, he turned over the ball, he missed a shot, he got beat on defense.’ It’s ‘We turned over the ball, we missed the shot,’ so we just can’t have an ego, we gotta go out there and win and lose as a team, that’s how it works.” — Simon Minami, senior
