Boys' basketball ends season and look to rebuild for next year

After suffering a loss to Corona Roosevelt High School on Friday, Feb. 20, boys’ basketball was eliminated in the first round of California Interscholastic Federation (CIF).

According to Coach James Hecht, the team knew it was going to be a difficult game as it faced off against the number 44 ranked team in the state.

“Naturally, we expected to win,” Hecht said. “We knew it was going to be a tough contest. The margin for error wasn’t that large.”

According to small forward New Williams (’15), even though Samo played a hard-fought game, its constant turnovers, missed shots and mental mistakes prevented the players from moving on.

“The problems we had during the season followed us into the first round game and we couldn’t go out with the win,” Williams said.

The team started to gain its rhythm as a team in the last game of preseason, right before league, when it beat Murrieta Valley in preseason to snap its eight-game losing streak right after the start of league.

Jonah Mathews (’16) believes that in its game against against Culver City on January 21, the team was on the same page and able to successfully execute key plays. The players were to connect not only as a team but also as friends, which made for better play on the court.

Mathews describes the season as strange, saying that the team struggled with consistency. According to Mathews, many of the difficulties were due to the team not having all of its players most of the season due to injuries.

According to Williams, their journey into CIF was important because a few team members haven’t experienced a CIF game before. All members of the team took up the role as leaders and tried to help their team. According to Mathews, the new additions to the team such as Spencer Freedman (’18) and Jayce Johnson (’16) impacted the team in a postive way.

“Jayce helps with rebounding and defense inside the paint. And Spencer has contributed his three point shooting and defensive ability,” Mathews said.

With Samo having gained new players this year, the team is also losing other key valuable players, such as Williams who will be leaving after this school year to attend Auburn University.

“Samo has taught me a very valuable lesson: to deal with adversity,” Williams said.

Even though this wasn’t William’s ideal last year, he describes it as a learning experience.

According to Hecht, the team is taking advantage of the time it has now, in preparation for next year. Hecht believes that the players will have to work on the things that held them back this season, such as turnovers and missing shots, in order to have a chance at going farther next year in CIF.