By: Noor Arif, Poni Larson, and Kendall Niehaus

The boys’ basketball season was different for every team. All the teams had their strengths and weaknesses. According to basketball player Kent Buckley, “We struggled to keep up with more physically dominant opponents.” The B team struggled with turnovers and the C team struggled with defending. 

The A team consisted of 9 players: Kent Buckley, Logan Washington, Matia Kastner, William Stock, Devin Denson, Nathan Mingo, Benjamin Leisring, Stephen Gerhardt, and Dylan Wolujewicz. All these players worked together to achieve a record of seven wins and nine losses.  Nathan Mingo, an eighth-grade basketball player, said their season was “disappointing,” and they thought they struggled a lot. They had high expectations from last year’s season, and they felt that they could have done better. “We lost a lot of games that we probably should’ve won,” Nathan Mingo said.  

Dylan Wolujewicz, a seventh-grade basketball player on the A team, said they did well with their offense and shooting. Mingo said they were “very fast-paced, and it threw off the opponents.” Coach Combs said their team was “very creative and found open players.”

Coach Combs said players Logan Washington and Devin Denson stepped up the most on their team because they “handled the ball really well and they were creative with it. They saw the court.” Coach Combs mentioned that both groups (A and B) overcame adversity, especially when Logan Washington broke his wrist and Cole Coffey injured his knee.

Although the season started off rough, they won games toward the end. Their favorite game was against CCD. The first time they played them, they lost by 20 points. CCD has two of the best players in the nation, so overcoming their team was challenging. Despite the odds against them, they managed to pull through the second time they played them. They were very close to winning, but fell short by three points. Even though they lost, it was still a significant improvement. 

“Gelling together”

The B team consisted of Joey Khalil, Eli Kampel, Donovan Maloney, Pablo Chambers, Will Harris, Gabe Schaffer, Aidan Vanderlaan, and Dylan Wolujewicz played their home games. Their record was tied with seven wins and seven losses. Seventh-grade basketball player Donovan Maloney said their season was “mid” because they won and then lost some. 

The B team struggled, especially with turnovers. A turnover is when the opposing team gains possession of the ball before the player takes their shot. Seventh grader Eli Kampel said the team did an excellent job of “gelling together and bonding together.” This helped them with their communication skills on the court, and they could pass the ball and work together smoothly. 

The team struggled when they were missing players. Some players couldn’t make it to games, and others were injured or sick.  Eli Kampel said, “We missed one of our most crucial players [Joey Khalil].” This set them back a lot for some of their games. 

Coach Combs said Donovan Maloney stepped up and improved the most because he was confident and consistent on and off the court. Another player who stepped up was Joey Khalil because he was an athletic all-round and scored a lot of their points.

One of their highlights was their comeback win against MVC. They were down 16-2 at the beginning, but towards the end of the game, they picked it up and ended up winning. 

 “Joyful” 

The C team ended with a reccord of 10-6. The team consisted of Brandt Lopez, Tenzing Kasman, Ramsey Russo, Taye Britt, Trey Berry, Salil Gupta, Henry Lafley, Oscar Nelson, Jacob Dant, Vishnu Juluri, William Liu, Jordan McKinney, and Finn Van Rooyan. Eighth-grade basketball player Tenzing Kasman said their season was “alright” because they struggled with defeating harder, more skilled teams. 

The team said they struggled because they didn’t have many tall people. This stopped them from being able to shoot and rebound. Tenzing Kasman said their team struggled with “paying attention during practice. When it was time to do our plays in the game, we didn’t do it as well.” 

Eighth-grade C team basketball player Trey Berry said their team did well with working together and communicating. They also did well with layups and turnovers. Many players on the C team said eighth-grade basketball player Ramsey Russo stepped up the most. 

The C team’s funniest story and their favorite moment was their game against Batavia. One player, in particular, was a very rowdy trash-talker, according to the C team. This led to disruptive interactions between both teams. The player from Batavia was ejected from the game. After regrouping, Seven Hills managed to pull out a win. 

Salil Gupta said he wanted to give a special shout-out and thanks to their coaches Top Miller and Dante Jones for helping them achieve a great season overall. 

All three teams worked together to improve. Basketball is never “a one man show,” according to Eli Kampel.