Boys’ basketball: Wang’s buzzer-beating basket caps thrilling win over Monta Vista

Senior Bryan Wang brings up the ball against Monta Vista during a match on January 16.

Entering the second half of the season with a record of 3-2, the boy’s basketball team’s dreams of winning CCS are still alive.

With the score tied 50-50 and the clock ticking down in a game against Monta Vista on Jan. 18, senior co-captain and point guard Bryan Wang slowed his pace and prepared for one final play. With a few cross betweens in a row, he dribbled by his defender to finish a tough layup, leading the Falcons to a hard-fought 52-50 win, their third league win. Coach Mike Davey pumped his fist in celebration on the sidelines alongside cheers from the crowd and bench.

“We needed to win this game to be a contender for winning the league,” junior guard Steven Ning said. “[The win] also gave the whole team a confidence boost for the upcoming games that we were playing.”

The team won 56-50 against Lynbrook on Jan. 23. Before, they lost to Cupertino 40-37 on Jan. 20 and lost 46-38 to Fremont on Jan 16. On Jan. 11, they beat Santa Clara 61-42, and they also defeated Homestead 70-59 on Jan. 9. To start the league season, the team suffered a tough loss against Lynbrook High School losing 61-52 on Jan. 3. As of Jan. 25, the team was third in the El Camino league at 4-3.

The team’s starters are junior power forward Daniel Jadali and seniors point guard Wang, guard Brooks Overton, center Raghav Chakravarthi and power forward Kali Duvvuri. Wang, who received a D3 basketball offer for Pacific University in Oregon, is one of the team’s key scorers, averaging 14 points a game.

Early in the league season, the team struggled with injuries and bouts of sickness, with up to five players out on certain games. As such, the team of 14 was undermanned and undersized against bigger teams like Fremont.

“For the past couple of weeks, there has been a bug going around the players making everyone sick,” sophomore guard Nathan Liu said. “Sometimes, there were practices with only six people healthy, so we couldn’t get any actual quality team practice and work in.”

With the second half of the league underway and most of the players recovering from both injuries and illnesses, the team hopes to continue persevering through games. The ultimate goal of winning CCS is not far from reach, with the final refinements of defense and acting under pressure being critical to their success.

“We have flashes in games where we play well, but now we need to put it all together and play like that for the entirety of the game, more specifically we need to focus on our defensive principles and being able to execute under pressure for a chance at winning CCS,” Jadali said.