ACSC Basketball

By Sean Lee

“We are at least getting 3rd,” I said confidently before entering the tournament. 

When the tournament ended, we finished in third-to-last place, which meant we ended up 6th. We had only one win throughout the entire tournament, a result I never imagined we would see. The first two days were the roughest I’ve experienced in my three years of varsity basketball. We lost all our games and found ourselves in the losers' bracket. In that bracket, we faced ICS Bangkok, the hosting team, and sadly, that was our one and only win. After that game, we had to compete against Grace to secure 3rd or 4th place. Everyone was exhausted as it was a back-to-back game. Unfortunately, just five minutes into the first quarter, Jaeyoun Kim (12), who had been performing well throughout the tournament, got injured and had to leave the game. From that point on, our team’s energy drastically dropped. We fought as hard as we could but ultimately lost to Grace, 46-58. 

“If I hadn’t gotten injured, we could’ve beaten Grace,” Jaeyoun said. It was a tough loss, and we had to battle for 5th or 6th place against YISS. I was determined to get 5th place at least. However, Aaron Morrison (11) couldn’t play due to a finger injury. With Jaeyoun and Aaron out, we went up against YISS in a tight match. We fought hard until the very last second but fell short, losing 34-31. 

That was it. It marked the end of my basketball career at Dalat. I felt so disappointed with the outcome and with myself. Every time I closed my eyes, one thought haunted me: what if I had played better? Why didn’t I perform better? That thought kept me up at night, filling me with regret. However, even with the unfortunate placement, the trip was really fun. I got closer to the underclassmen, and the team bonded together. 

It was a trip I will never forget.