Hard Fought Island Shootout

By Aidan Leong

Silas Latham (9) throws the ball up into the air over the heads of multiple Oasis players. As the ball seems to fall, two hands suddenly grip its leathery surface. It's Matthias Seevaratnam (10) floating in the air! He catches the ball and puts a shot into the basket before landing on the ground. 

Cheers and shouts echo throughout the court as the JV boys get back on defense. The spirit of the Dalat community comes alive with parents, middle schoolers, high schoolers, and teachers all cheering on the bleachers. 

Last week, the junior varsity boys and girls played in a two-day basketball tournament on Friday and Saturday. Multiple teams, such as ISKL, Oasis, Han Chiang, and Chung Ling, came to play. The JV (Junior Varsity) boys fought hard and experienced high and low moments. They had a massive victory over Oasis with a score of 66-8. They also fought ISKL at the start and had a good lead on them, but unfortunately, ISKL caught up and beat them by a few points. Then, in the finals, the JV boys fought against ISKL, only to miss the championship by a small margin. 

When asked how the game went, Timothy Hollon (11) says, "I think the game went really well; in the short time that our team's been together, we've really grown as a group, and it showed over the tournament. Also, I thought that the team took the loss well. There were definitely emotions and the loss wasn't easy, but the team took it like men and instead of complaining, turned their focus to winning next week." Fortunately, this is not the last of ISKL the JV boys will see; this Friday, they will rematch ISKL on their home court. 

Here is what Sam Yeoh (9) had to say about the tournament as a whole: "It was a great experience to play in a tournament with players who were mostly older and bigger than I am. It was tough to take a L against ISKL twice but it was a fun nonetheless to be able to play in 2 really close games." 

Even though they may not have won, this tournament pitched them against tough competition. It helped them continue to develop individually in their skills and as a team in their chemistry.

Timothy Hollon (11) says one thing that could improve would be "our team being healthy. By the end of the tournament, only 2 of our original 5 starters weren't injured or sick." 

During the games, many of their starters and players had fallen to injury and had to sit out the tournament. Despite this, the JV boys did their best and pushed through every game. But most of all, they always seemed to be having fun on the court. That's where the memories are made. That's the beauty of the game.