The Boys Varsity Basketball squad finished with a 14-12 regular season record, 4-6 against the other great teams in the NBL-Oak League, and a couple of playoff appearances against other powerhouse programs in the area.
Eleven out of fifteen of the players this year were seniors, and the Tigers said that this chemistry of being in the same grade level and having played with each other for so long was important to helping them do well. The offense was led by great players in forward Kai Mayer and guard Bryce Homen. The “defense was the strongpoint” and “everyone was lockdown,” according to senior Hunter Thomas when commenting on the defensive strength of the entire roster. However seniors Jordan Jones and Nick Mason were standout leaders of the strong defense.
The team started off hot winning 6 out of the first 8 games of their season. The first 3 games were dominated by the Tigers, winning 62-51 against the Novato High Hornets, 58-10 against the Technology High Titans, and 59-19 against the Elsie Allen High Lobos. These early games would help kickstart the Tigers into a dominant pre-league play.
Following their three dominant games early on, the Tigers travelled to join a tournament in McKinleyville. This tournament would be marked as one of the many bright spots throughout the team’s season. The Tigers in their stint in McKinleyville would go 2-1, with great performances against West Valley High Eagles and the Las Plumas High Thunderbirds. These games would help prepare them for the tougher opponents later in the Tigers schedule. This retreat also allowed the team to become much closer, and acted as a very important role in team bonding. Senior Kai Mayer said “The highlight was definitely the McKinleyville Tournament” when speaking about his favorite parts of the season. Mayer also said that it allowed them to see “a little vision of what the season would look like.”
Finishing pre-league play, the Tigers would win a couple more games. However, following their games up north and before their league opener, the Tigers struggled to put up consistent wins. This would continue to be an issue that the team fought with all season. Nonetheless, the Tigers soon had to overcome any issues they had and get started on their games that really mattered: their league games against other star programs in the area. The Tigers finished their pre-league games finishing with a record of 9-6.
The first three games of the Tigers league play were hardfought, but ultimately, the team would not emerge victorious from these matches. The Tigers started their regular season of 0-3, but that would not destroy their hopes. With a win against the Maria Carrillo High Pumas, the Tigers were fueled for an important matchup coming up in a couple weeks against the Montgomery High Vikings.
The Tigers would go into this game knowing the stakes were high. They were now 1-4 in league matchups, and to add on, the Tigers had not beaten Montgomery in 15 years. That would all change this year. Even though the team would be playing the Vikings in an away game they were able to squeeze in a clutch win, allowing them to keep their playoff hopes alive as well as end the losing streak against that great program. With a 65-63 win, the Tigers were now 2-4 in league, but had fuel to finish out strong.
Following the huge win against Montgomery, the Tigers would go on to finish out league play with a record of 4-7 as well as other huge non league wins bringing the Tigers to an overall record of 14-12, which was enough for a playoff berth against the Cardinal Newman High powerhouse program. Some Tigers players said that if they played a team other than the Newman squad, they could have gone farther in playoffs, but in the end, they would fall short in the first round of the league playoffs with a 35-64 loss. Though this loss was an end for one playoff opportunity, the Tigers had one more shot to go further, as the NCS Playoffs would start.
The Tigers last chance to keep the season alive was a playoff matchup against the Benicia High Panthers, another strong program that the team would have to face. Similar to their other playoff matchup, the Tigers would fall short yet again and lose 40-65, and have their season ended in another hard loss.
Overall, this year was no failure for the program. It was a season full of many ups and downs, a rollercoaster of wins and losses, but it helped cement the Tigers’ drive for greatness and was said by many players on the roster to be a good season overall, though cut short too soon. With a team full of many seniors, next year’s roster will be quite different, and we cannot wait to see what happens next for the program!
