Senior Captain Berhan Daniel setting a fast tempo while facilitating the court. Photo by Idriss Touati. 
Senior Captain David Mervilius going up with a layup through contact from multiple defenders. Photo by Idriss Touati. 
Senior Captain David Mervilius dribbling past a defender. Photo by Idriss Touati. 
Senior Captain Kaydar Al-Hamdani shooting a mid-range jump shot. Photo by Idriss Touati. 
Freshman Anderson Joseph shooting a three-point jump shot. Photo by Idriss Touati. 
Senior Captain Berhan Daniel going up for a lay-up. Photo by Idriss Touati. 
Senior Captain Kaydar Al-Hamdani dribbling the ball up the court. Photo by Idriss Touati.
Storming into the season with high hopes, the boys basketball team fell short of their goals. With a record of 4-16, Senior Captain Kaydar Al-Hamdani thinks that “[they] were a hard-working team who can put up a fight with anybody.”
Playing with a 3-2 zone, which is a defense that involves three players set up across the free-throw line with the two wings hard denying their opponents on the wing, and the middle player denying the high post. This leaves the point guard at the top of the key without ball pressure. Senior captain Berhan Daniel thinks “the zone is working but [they have] lost a few of [their] starters” which makes the zone harder to use.
A key to success is the locker room attitude and how they respond to a loss. The locker room was “upbeat and everyone knew [they] could win the games if [they] executed” Senior Captain Daniel said. “[They] moved the ball well and got out on their shooters but [their] team can improve on our ball movement and trying to play as a team.” Daniel added that “[he] can improve on [his] shot selection because at times [he] settles for threes.”
The boys basketball team has triumphed against teams who they have had troubles defeating in the past. “Even though [they] had just lost to a team [they] should have beat the game before” the boys basketball team showed their grit and determination in a 58-55 win against Lynn Classical. They hoped to continue this win streak to make the postseason but were unsuccessful.
Daniel believes that “[they] underachieved but developed lots of [their] young players.” Compared to many other seasons, this year the core of the team is very young and they have got some experience under their belt. Considering the young core, the team performed well against talented teams that have played with each other for years.
The boys basketball team was on the short side of chemistry and a loss of seniors led to having a huge amount of changes that affected the chemistry of the team. Having a young core leads to having inexperience and “lots of new pieces that tried to do things on their own,” which had a huge impact on chemistry, according to captain Daniel.
Playing together as a team leads to wins and this season they fell short of achieving their goals. One of the negative aspects on the team was that “too many people that weren’t committed to the team and it eventually hurt [them] down the line,” an issue that the team struggled with was “trusting each other and playing for [their] teammates” Daniel adds. Some personal improvements Daniel thinks he can make personally is that he can work on “setting the tempo for the team” which is a big factor in winning games, creating momentum that spreads throughout the team.
Senior Night was on that same night, and it was a night to honor the seniors who were leaving. Berhan Daniels says for younger players to “work hard this off season and try to develop a bond with their teammates this summer.” He stated that there were a lot of up and downs throughout basketball because “[Berhan] feel[s] like the team chemistry wasn’t strong because a lot of new pieces were coming together so it was hard to gel”
Overall the boys basketball team fell short of their goals and executing as they wanted but have high hopes for the future and progressing their young core as well as building chemistry together.
