Boys’ basketball: Falcons struggle early in League

After five league games this season, the Falcons are still without a win and are looking to find footing in league play. But players say they expect to recover from their rocky start and earn wins in their remaining league games.

The team has had its fair share of difficulties early on this season. The height deficiencies were clear in the two losses to Milpitas, 75-53, and Los Altos, 65-54 on Jan. 15 and 17, respectively.

“The biggest struggle this season is our size,” senior guard Justin Huang said. “The teams that we play are almost always bigger than us, and we lost a very strong senior class last year. We also had to make adjustments to our new coach.”

New coach Temo Barrera has place a strong emphasis on conditioning in practices

“Since most teams are bigger than us, we need to utilize our speed by getting up and down the court faster,” Huang said. “Every day in practice, we run a lot to improve our stamina and endurance.”

The team often faces large point deficits, in which the players fall behind in stretches and struggle to recover against their opponents. This was seen in the Falcons’ recent 66-31 loss to Palo Alto on Jan. 22.

“Every game we have this lapse where the other team just goes on a run and we are down by 15 or more,” senior center Kevin Chun said. “Our struggle is to stop those runs and get a win.”

The Falcons plan to focus on improving their shot selection and defensive prowess. Another goal is to reduce their opponents' offensive rebounds. The Falcons also want to keep their edge and push each other during practices and games.

“It’s always good to see players helping each other during the game and during practice,” Chun said. “We want to get better as a team, and we are trying our best to improve each other by being competitive during the practices and going hard during the game. Even though we are down most of the times during the game, people on the bench still cheer for the players on the floor.”

Not only do the bench players cheer, but the fans do as well. The home crowd support has been a big factor in the morale of the team. One such game in which the crowd was a sixth man was against the Los Gatos Wildcats and while the 

Falcons kept clawing and scratching, they eventually fell, 66-58 in the tough loss.

“The best part about the season are the home games, the energy and excitement that the school brings is awesome,” Huang said. “It really gets the players pumped up and excited for every game.  Although we may not win every home game, our school is still always cheering us on, which keeps our confidence up.”