Due to a number of different circumstances, the boys JV basketball team played in their first full game in two and a half weeks. With only one day of practice in the past week (because of the Long Winter weekend), we found ourselves taking on an undefeated Taft team. The first half was nip and tuck with both teams playing well defensively, but Taft was able to squeak out a small lead towards the end of the half, and we went into the break down six at 16 – 22. We came out of the break ready to play and with about 12 minutes left in the half we took the lead. Unfortunately for us, we could only keep that lead for a minute or so before Taft was able to assert themselves and retake the lead. This time, we were not able to come back and Taft stretched the lead to 10 to 12 points with about 4 minutes to go and we could not find a way to get back into the game. Taft deserved the win in the end but we showed some really good moments on defense in particular and hope that our improvement on defense will continue. Eddy Rena ’24 provided great defensive energy in the first half in particular and was a big part of our success in that half. Max Peh ’24 shot consistently from behind the line and was aggressive in general on the offensive side of the floor and in the end led all scorers with 15. Xavier Aviles ’24, Henry Griffen ’24, James Fealy ’24 and Jeff Wang ’23 all made valuable contributions as well. The final score did not reflect the closeness of the game. We are excited to take the positives from this game and apply those lessons learned into our game on Saturday.