Boys’ basketball falls to Providence High School in first home game of the season, 50-44

The energy was high at Foothill Tech’s varsity boys’ basketball team’s first home game of the season. Family and friends rose to their feet to cheer on the Dragons at Ventura College against Providence High School. The Friday night game ended in a Foothill defeat of 50-44.

The game began with junior and varsity captain Daniel Holst winning the jump ball and giving his team first possession of the ball. However, Providence stole the ball back and scored the first points of the game. Holst then scored the first two points for his team. Later in the quarter, junior Dominic DuMont scored, ending the first quarter trailing, 11-4.

DuMont felt the team played “well” but had too many turnovers.

“We played really well today, just couldn’t hack it. It was a group effort but next time we’ll come out stronger and better in the first half,” DuMont said.

The buzzer went off, signaling the start to the second quarter. Providence had the first possession of the ball and scored five points at the start. DuMont scored, bringing the game score up to 16-9 after a foul was committed against him.

Two consecutive fouls were committed against sophomore Cameron Strain and one foul against sophomore Colin Vallance. Both players scored two points each, driving the score up but still trailing 18-15. The teams took turns shooting and rebounding until both Vallance and DuMont scored, letting the Dragons end the second quarter ahead 19-18.

Principal Joe Bova felt that the team played “pretty good” in the second quarter of the game.

“They hustled through the whole game and they, at times, they disrupted the other team and they put pretty good pressure with a full-court press,” Bova said.

However, although he thought the team played well, Bova believes that they could have played better.

“[The team could have had] a little better decision-making out there on the court and [moved] the ball a little bit more,” Bova said.

Both teams warmed up after taking a ten-minute break for halftime. The Dragons had first possession and Holst scored, giving his team a three-point lead, 21-18. Vallance fell hard to the ground as he saved the ball from going out of bounds and passed it to Holst, who scored two more points.

Junior Tyler Ragan-Sutton stepped in front of a Providence player, stole the ball, and scored, adding to the lead, 27-22. Providence scored eight points, bringing the score, which the Dragons trailed, 30-27.

With one second left on the clock, Vallance shot and scored two points. The Dragons ended behind in the third quarter by one point, 30-29.

“They played hard. But we also did not take advantage of some opportunities that we should have scored as well and we made some defensive mistakes,” Varsity Coach Dean Prophet said.

Although Prophet thought the team struggled, he also felt that the team supported one another and communicated.

“I think we had a lot of support from everyone on the bench as far as [letting] our kids know where their shooters were,” Prophet said.

The last quarter of the game began with Foothill in possession of the ball. Providence scored first but Valance helped the team recover with a layup still trailing, 32-31. After two fouls committed by Vallance, he scored two points with another layup to come close, 40-37. Foothill later committed their fifteenth team foul of the game, losing the game by six points, 50-44.

Prophet believes that the team “fought back” but made mistakes that resulted in a loss.

“They battled back. We missed some shots that I think we normally would have made which would have made the game closer at the end,” he said.

Although the team struggled, Prophet felt the team “got some good minutes from the subs [and] defended the rebound really well until the fourth quarter.”

According to Prophet, the team will keep “improving” and working towards their goal of winning league.

“[We will] just keep improving a little bit each day in practice. You know it’s a process for us. They’re pretty young […] and they just have to gel together as a team in the five there and they have to play together. And I think we’ll get there,” Prophet said.

–Kathryn Brandi