Assistant coach senior Miles Edwards (obscured) hugs fellow senior Bryce Longoria (right) during senior night. Seniors handed out roses to their parents like Dali Fan (left), father of senior Reggie.
In a packed gymnasium on their homecoming and senior night, the boys’ basketball team lost to the Faith Christian Lions, 59-68.
The Cavs are now 7-3 in league after narrowly losing to the Sacramento Adventist Capitals and suffering a repeat loss to the Lions.
After Coach David Ancrum’s speeches for each of the five seniors (Reggie Fan, Bryce and Jake Longoria, Miles Edwards and Cole Johnson), the match began.
Faith Christian won the tip-off, but the Cavs quickly gained possession after a shot clock violation.
But despite their solid defense, the Cavs ended the first quarter with only a one-point lead and were behind at the half 28-32.
“We started off really strong, but (Faith Christian was) able to come back and take the lead by halftime,” senior Bryce Longoria said. “That made it hard because we were playing from behind the rest of the way.”
In addition, senior Reggie Fan, who had 25 points, said their defense could have been better.
“We need to talk more and play hard defense without fouling as much,” Fan said.
Foul trouble was big in the fourth quarter as Fan, Longoria and senior Cole Johnson each had four fouls at the beginning of the fourth (after the fifth foul, a player is out of the game), and the Cavs landed into double bonus (because they had committed 10 fouls already).
With 6:30 on the clock in the fourth quarter, the Cavs climbed from 41-46 to a tie, 51-51.
But after a defensive foul against Faith Christian’s Jeremiah Savage, the game moved in the Lions’ favor when Savage sank one of his two free throws.
The boys kept up their fight, narrowing the Lions’ lead to 52-51, forcing their coach to call a timeout with 4:11 on the clock.
But soon after, Longoria was called for a block and fouled out with 3:25 on the clock.
This foul put the Lions up 54-51.
And after the Lions’ Zach Rodriguez, who scored 31 points, made his fourth three, Faith Christian was up 59-51.
The Cavs may have started strong, but in the fourth quarter, they scored only 18 points compared to Faith’s 23.
The Cavs play Sac Adventist away on Monday, Feb. 10, at 7:30 p.m.
—By Katia Dahmani
