Boys’ basketball ends a bounceback season with CCS loss to Monterey

Seniors Mason Wang, Julian Berkowitz-Sklar and Lucas Dennis help up junior guard Bryan Wang in their CCS match against Soledad on Feb. 19.

The team put together their best season in several years, getting to the quarterfinals round of CCS.

The boys’ basketball team undertook a valiant uphill battle after moving up to the highly competitive A division this past season. They were in must-win territory even before playoffs, needing to win their last two regular season games to qualify for CCS, which they did.

The Falcons won 64-59 against Los Altos on Feb. 15 and 53-35 against Palo Alto to squeeze into CCS. It was their first win against Palo Alto in 29 years.

The Falcons then received a bye through the first round and played their first game in the second round of CCS against sixth-seeded Soledad from the PCAL-Mission division.

“We didn’t take them lightly and we continued to play as hard as we did the entire season,” junior guard Bryan Wang said.

With this focused approach, the Falcons thumped an inferior Soledad squad 83-36 at home on Feb. 19, then set their sights on Monterey, whom they previously lost to 74-58 in the preseason.

The Falcons still went in optimistic for the game, but were put in tough deficits by Monterey’s strong starts in the first two minutes of every quarter.

Guards Julian Berklowitz-Sklar and Niveydh Pai struggled throughout the game in terms of scoring, but there were some standout performances among frontcourt players, especially from senior center Mateusz Palusinski, who scored 27 points and grabbed 18 rebounds. As the game advanced, the guards focused on assisting their hot teammates instead of focusing on scoring.

Eventually, the team caught some momentum in the second half after the guards settled. By calming down and taking better control of the game, the Falcons shortened a 14 point halftime deficit to single digits. However, despite hanging within striking distance throughout the second half, they ended up losing 57-51 on the road.

Despite the quarterfinals loss, players saw reason to celebrate. Berklowitz-Sklar pointed to how the team played a united and fun style this year under returning coach Mike Davey. He said the season wasn’t just about basketball, but made an impact on team members’ entire life. He appreciated not only their successes, but also “the small moments of just being able to see each other every day.”

“I think at the end of the day, what’s most important about sports is the connections,” Berkowitz-Sklar said. “When we’re older, obviously, we’ll be thinking that we could have won CCS, but we realize that the friendships we built were more important.”

Now Davey has already started spring training with the team to get them prepared for the next winter season. Workouts and open gyms are occurring right after school. A well organized summer plan has already been constructed and shared with families.

Davey plans to enter multiple travel tournaments, with the closest one happening in the summer in Victoria, Canada.