Senior night for Galileo’s boy’s varsity basketball was bittersweet as the Lions ended the game with a resounding 17 point win, but 2 valuable senior players sustained injuries while playing in it.
With the Lions playing the Balboa Buccaneers on February 12th, a disastrous situation took place during the 1st quarter when senior forward Darryn W. dislocated his shoulder, resulting in his absence for the rest of the game. He stated, “I thought it was gonna be over because I didn’t know if I’d be back or not for the playoffs and I thought it was a major injury”. In another unlucky circumstance, senior guard Shaune D. received a concussion from a collision with another player on a rebound which also resulted in him missing the rest of the game.
The injuries may have affected the team’s play as they only had a 3 point lead at the end of the 1st quarter. Besides losing these 2 key players, the main issue for the Lions was allowing Balboa to score off a number of offensive rebounds. On the upside, Darryn W. splashed 2 three’s, giving the team the push they needed.
The Lions were a different team in the second half though, stepping up their defense and rebounding. With their hard work, they held Balboa to scoring only 8 points in the third quarter.
The team was also able to figure out Balboa’s zone defense, which led to a 20 point third quarter, giving the Lions a 16 point lead. The scoring in the quarter was led by senior forward Dean B., who scored 9 points, all on 3 pointers, and junior guard Chris L. with 5 points.
The team finished the game off strong in the 4th quarter never letting up on their lead. “I felt like it was a really good game even though two seniors got hurt. Hopefully they’ll be healthy and back soon, but besides that all the seniors started and contributed to the game and won,” said sophomore guard Jordan D.
In addition to the win, the game was also filled with many sentiments as the team celebrated the 6 seniors, Mahlon Crawford, Darryn Wong, Dean Belayadi, Dominic S., Shaune Dilidili, and Josh Ko, all who were part of the boys basketball program for the last 4 years. Senior forward Mahlon C. stated, “I found it surreal that I was playing in my own senior night after only having played in my teammates senior nights the past 3 years.”
