Boys Basketball Steals their first home league game against Hawthorne

On Friday, Jan. 13, the boy’s basketball team swept in their first home league game against Hawthorne High School. The team started and finished strong with a final score of 77-30.“[My expectations for this game were] to play well, execute well, take care of the ball, share the ball, play as a team and continue to grow and improve,” coach James Hecht said.The game began when Samo swiped the ball at the toss up, taking the ball down court and scoring the first points in the game. By the end of the first quarter, Samo was up 35-16.“I think we really showed up and played more together in the past two games then in the whole season, but we need to improve our defense if we want to progress as a team,” Rip Economou (’18) said.As the second quarter commenced, the team continued to push forward, making aggressive shots and showing their dominance on the court.“[Overall,] we made a few mistakes that we need to clean up, but we played pretty well,” Cameron Jaquet (’18) said.By the start of the second half, Samo was up 59-21, showing promise for success.“I thought overall we played pretty well. I was pleased to see everyone cheer for each other, support each other and it was good that we were able to get everyone in,” Hecht said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that have been working really hard in practice so it was good to get everybody in. It was a good team victory, but now it’s time to move on to our next opponent.”As the final minute of the game was counting down to the seconds, Samo had possession of the ball, holding their lead and ending the game with a score of 77-30.“[Next] we’ve got Beverly Hills and they’re a very good opponent,” Hecht said. “We’ve got to be ready, we’ve got to be dialed in and we have to take care of that basketball and defend better than we did tonight.”