After opening the season 5-0 before losing five straight down the stretch, the boy’s basketball team did not lose consecutive games at any point during the entire league season. . On Wednesday, the team opened the CIF Division III playoffs at home against Oceanside. Results were not available at publication time. If they won, they play tomorrow.
Guard Nikhil Rajgopal (12) said the grind of the season has fine-tuned the team heading into the playoffs.
“We’ve all created a bond to where we’re able to push each other in practice,” he said. “We know that nothing is personal, but we’re all trying to get the best out of each other.”
Rajgopal has found that through the season, the players have grown more comfortable with each other and become more communicative by helping each other improve every practice.
After playing together for nearly nine months because of summer tournaments and fall ball, they have developed a close bond that has led to better on-court play.
“We’ve really built a great family with our team, and it’s not like we’re just teammates on the court,” Rajgopal said. “We’re also friends off the court.”
The team’s second-place league finish was an improvement over last year’s team. This, too, has given the players reason for optimism, as last year they didn’t make it out of knockouts.
“I think we’re hitting the stride at the right time,” Rajgopal said. “We’re playing our best basketball heading into CIFs.”
In preparation for CIFs, the team worked on some defensive strategies and switches in order to go as far as they were expecting.
“We’ve looked at the film and seen a couple of things that we can take away,” guard Lawrence Lam (10) said.
Looking into CIFs, the players from previous seasons recognize that the team has a great shot at going far. Prior to this season, the team hadn’t been this highly placed in the league since 2017-2018.
“Being able to at least be in [a better] situation this year and having a shot at getting past the first round and second round,” Rajgopal said. “We’ll be able to take advantage of the positive momentum that we’re building, and make a run for [the playoffs.]”
