Varsity boys basketball bested by Eastside College Prep 33-49 on senior night
Varsity boys basketball faltered 33-49 to Eastside College Prep during their senior night on Friday.
During the ceremony, seniors Caden Ruan, Oliver Chen, Vivek Yella, Alan Gao, David Li, Rishaan Thoppay and Robinson Xiang walked from the baseline to halfcourt with their family and friends while head coach Alfredo Alves announced their favorite basketball memories and team contributions.
“They’ve all matured over the years,” Alves said. “They’ve given so much to the basketball program, not just at the upper school. A lot of them have played since sixth grade, so they’ve really come out for hardcore basketball and committed to it.”
Eastside took possession of the tip-off, and both teams traded turnovers due to missed passes. Despite an attempted block from Alan, the Panthers struck first with a three-pointer. The Eagles started off cold from beyond the arc, missing three straight triples. However, Oliver found success working the interior, scoring two layups and drawing a foul to bring the score to 5-5 with three minutes left in the quarter.
Harker struggled to find its footing offensively, committing travels and out-of-bounds turnovers that gave Eastside more opportunities to score. With a minute left, forward Babila Mfonfu (11) snuck a pass to Rishaan, who elevated for a floater to narrow the gap to 7-8. Eastside forced in a reverse layup to end the first quarter 7-10.
None of the Eagles’ field goal attempts converted in the third quarter. On the defensive end, Vivek pulled down crucial rebounds to limit Eastside’s possessions. However, the Eagles committed multiple shooting fouls, allowing their opponents to pull away 14-36 midway through the period. After Stephen’s three-point attempt fell short, Harker failed to notch any paints, lagging behind to 14-41.
In the fourth quarter, Harker implemented a full-court press to earn more offensive possessions. Rishaan drove along the baseline to feed the ball to Oliver, who converted a layup 16-44. The Eagles began ripping steals and sinking consecutive transition layups to narrow the deficit to 20-45 halfway through the quarter.
“Mentally, we’ve grown to not keep ourselves down through the game,” Oliver said. “If we’re losing, we always have to keep a good mental state. We had zero points in the 3rd quarter, but we still try to come out strong in the 4th quarter, trying to score as much as we can.
Attempting to mount a comeback, Alves devised a trick play where he stepped onto court during an Eastside free-throw attempt and hid Rishaan behind him. After Eastside missed the free throw, Caden launched the ball across the court to Rishaan for an open layup, bringing the score to 28-48. Caden sank a triple and a putback layup, but the comeback fell short and the game ended 33-49.
After the game, the Harker seniors interacted with family and friends on court, taking photos with their senior night posters.
Rishaan reflected on how the team developed their chemistry and mastered the full playbook together.
“We’ve especially improved in being able to run plays,” Rishaan said. “I know at the start of the season we were messing a lot of things up, quite routine things, but we added on some plays, especially against certain defenses, against zone and whatnot. We got better as the season progressed in that aspect.”
