On the night of Dec. 17, the Foothill Technology (Foothill Tech) boys basketball team faced Fillmore High School (Fillmore) in the Ventura High School gym. Fillmore started the game with the ball, but the Dragons turned that around with Nick Turner ‘26 quickly putting up some easy shots to help the Dragons gain the lead. The game was a close one, with both teams showing tremendous effort; however, the Dragons managed to secure a 67-60 win over Fillmore.
Head coach Jamaal Brown spoke on the game, saying, “I’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day, but that was definitely not an ugly win. I thought the guys played really well.”
To begin, Fillmore sank a corner jumpshot to jumpstart a 0-2 lead, but Turner fought back with seven quick points to bring the score to 7-4. After a fastbreak layup by Fillmore and some points scored in the paint by Elijah Spencer ‘26, the Dragons called a timeout. After this, both teams came out of the timeout looking to score. The Dragons were also very strong on the boards with multiple rebounds, which helped them to keep the ball in their possession. A buzzer-beater layup by Enzo Rivera ‘27 ended the first quarter with a score of 18-10.
Fillmore started the second quarter with a missed three-pointer and Daniel Rios ‘26 was able to get a steal to pass it to Spencer for a fast break layup. The Dragons, however, started to foul, sending Fillmore to the free-throw line, giving them some easy points to close the gap and bring the score to 20-15. Fillmore then shot two back-to-back deep threes and started to gain the lead 20-21. However, Ashton Brown ‘26 fought back and made a three, so with a layup by Sebastian Huovinen ‘27, the score was back to a Dragons lead of 25-21. Both teams started going back and forth scoring, the half ending with a close score of 31-29.
The third quarter started quickly with Foothill Tech scoring six points within the first couple of minutes. Fillmore responded with two threes, putting the score at 39-35. With threes by both Turner and Huovinen, accompanied by one by Turner, the Dragons brought the score to 48-40. Foothill Tech then closed the quarter with some free throws and the score was 51-42.
This game proved to be an aggressive one, with both teams having multiple fouls. A key player in the game was Zaiden Archuleta ‘26, who had multiple points in the paint to help Foothill Tech maintain its lead. Erick Hernandez ‘26 also helped out with a fast break layup to bring the score to 59-46. Brown scored a three in the last minute and the Dragons were able to secure a 67-60 victory against Fillmore.
