Isaac Garcia
In their most recent game against the Taft Raiders, the boys basketball team won with the final score of 72-60. With the leading scorer junior Adam Benhayoune having 29 points and junior Isaac Orozco having 13 points and 5 assists.
“Definitely Warren, I think Warren is always the toughest because it’s definitely a more emotional game as far as the rivalry, if we don’t win you come back to school and obviously there’s a tension there,” junior Joshua Alcocer said.
As all good sports teams know, practice makes perfect.
“We practice for two and a half hours and there’s certain days where we come in earlier and watch film and take notes. We also go to other games and take notes and we practice every day so we don’t get a day off not even game days,” Alcocer said.
“We look great, we have great defense as well as really good chemistry on the court and I think that helps us a lot,” Alcocer said.
Easily seen on the court, the team communicates at a very skilled level especially when it comes down to the more serious games such as against Warren, Clark and most importantly all the games leading up to state.
“Just working hard during every practice so hen the games come around I’ll hopefully be performing the best I possibly can,” Alcocer said.
As an added benefit of winning our school ranking against other schools gets higher and higher each time we win. In every single sport you know how nervous you could get along with you not wanting to let your teammates down. Most importantly you don’t want to get inside your own head and doubt yourself.
Because the season isn’t close to ending, the team still has plenty of time to improve.
“Of course like everybody else you don’t want to mess up, you want to play to perfection. But I’m just thinking about what are they going to do score or what are they going to do to personally make me mess up. So
I think it’s always good to think as if you were them what is your weakness, what are they going to do to you,” Alcocer said.
As the season goes on for basketball, they will continue to work hard and push themselves to the limit. Although there are many tough teams out there, the Panthers have shown they are a force to be reckoned with.