Boys Basketball Earns Tough Win Against El Segundo

On Wednesday Jan. 25, boys basketball took on a tough contender, El Segundo High School, winning with a narrow lead of 57-43.“We had a business-like approach going into the game,” Daniel Schreier (’17) said. “We knew we had to execute as a team in order to come out of the game with a win.”At the toss-up, El Segundo swiped the ball, taking it down court in attempts to shoot. However, despite their aggression, Samo fought back by stealing the ball back and making the first point of the game.“I had hoped [going in] to have executed a little better than we did today, but El Segundo played hard and they were really disciplined on offense, used a lot of the shot clock and really forced us to be disciplined on defense and we had trouble with that early on,” Hecht said.Further into the first quarter, Samo and El Segundo players fought to achieve and maintain leads, but at the sound of the buzzer, El Segundo took the lead, 12-8.“In the first half I definitely think we underestimated them,” Schreier said. “We were not playing that well on the offensive end and could have definitely played more aggressively on the defensive end.”Going into the second quarter, El Segundo kept up their aggressive attitude, but was matched by Samo players Rip Economo (’18), Schreier, and the remainder of the starting five. Thus, ending the half with a score 28-26 with Samo in the lead.“I thought we played a much better second half, settled down a bit. First half we relied on outside shots way too much and second half we pounded, tried to get the ball inside a little more, we were much more successful at it,” Hecht said.As the second half commenced, Samo came out ready for another battle, but were opposed by a slower less aggressive El Segundo. “During the second half, our team moved the ball more and did a good job of avoiding quick shots,” Schreier said. “We also were a lot more active on the defensive end and controlled the boards.”As the game came to a close, Samo sealed El Segundo’s fate, ending the game with a score of 57-43.“[Next, I hope that the team] comes out from the start and are ready to play,” Hecht said. “Be focused, take our opponent seriously, and just execute.”