On Saturday, March 10, the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams participated in the second round of the 2018 California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Tournaments of their divisions; Division V for the boys’ team and Division IV for the girls’ team.
For the boys’ varsity basketball team, the season came to an end on Saturday. They were outdueled by the Cavers of San Diego High School with a final score of 81-53.
Cisco Lomax ‘18, a member of the Dragons’ basketball program since its inaugural season in 2014-15, reminisces on his experiences, saying that “I had an awesome time playing basketball.”
“It’s [been] so much fun to play with these teammates and watch everyone get better. I think that we did a lot better than a lot of people expected us to. We lost six seniors from the year before and other guys had to step up,” he said. “We had high expectations for ourselves and we met most of our goals.”
Lomax describes the most memorable moment of the season to be “when we were down 20 [points] at halftime at Channel Islands and we came back to win without a few of our key players.”
Besides Lomax, the Dragons will be without the services of Colin Vallance ‘18, Cameron Strain ‘18 and Trey Jackson ‘18 as the Class of 2018 departs.
Meanwhile, the girls’ varsity basketball team extended their season by recording a 45-35 win over the Eagles of Immanuel High School. In a low-scoring game, Abby Sourwine ‘19 led the Dragons with 14 points while grabbing six rebounds. Also contributing in the game was Maddie Ozbourn ‘19, who scored eight points and blocked five shots.
Next up for the Foothill girls’ team is a matchup versus the Huskies of Rolling Hills Preparatory School in the regional semifinals of the 2018 Division IV CIF State Girls’ Basketball tournament.
Emiline Bova ‘19 explained that preparation for the next game will entail “watching game film on the other team and preparing for how we will defend against their style of play,” despite only having “one day of practice to prepare.”
If the Dragons were to advance past the regional semifinals, and if the Eagles of Brentwood High School were to win their regional semifinal matchup against the Hawks of Knight High School, it would be a rematch of the Division 4AA CIF Finals game in which the Dragons lost a heartbreaker. Thus, an opportunity of redemption would be presented.