By SHIVAM SUDAME
Sports Editor
Senior Co-Captain Alex Bray led the Trojans in a well-rounded effort. He finished with 19 points on 8-18 shooting, an efficient 44%. He was 3-8 from behind the arc and tacked on eight rebounds and four assists. Another major contributor was senior Co-Captain point guard Kevin Yahampath. The league leader in assists, Yahampath ended up with nine assists, supplemented by four rebounds and seven points on 3-12 shooting. Junior big man Brandon Liu continued his fantastic season, garnering 14 points on 6-10 shooting.
The high-octane offense of the Trojans had proven streaky on several occasions, and all season they often switched between cold stretches to hot streaks. Their ability to go on runs allowed them to always stay in games, but prolonged cold stretches sometimes allowed the opposition to put the game away. This game was no different. Other than Bray’s respectable 3-8 shooting at a 37.5% clip from deep, the team went 3-21 from behind the three-point line. Yahampath shot only 1-8, and senior Shan Dharod shot 1-7. Had the Trojans shot around Bray’s percentage, they would have added around fifteen points to their score, more than enough to take the lead.
The Trojans received a wild card entry into CIF, despite finishing fourth in league with a 4-6 league record. Crean Lutheran, their opponent, went on to win CIF-SS Division 3 AA and took their win streak to the 2nd round of the Division 3 state championship, where they were defeated by Murrieta Mesa.
The team will lose many of its players next season. Bray averaged 27 points per game, along with 7.9 rebounds and 2.9 steals per game. Yahampath averaged 10 assists, coupled with 2.9 steals and 12.7 points. Players like Liu and sophomore starter Will Stenta will look to have greater roles offensively to help the team reach CIF for the second straight year.
Commenting on the season and the team’s future, Yahampath said, “Looking back on the season, I’m really happy with everything we accomplished. Even though we were only able to go 4-6 in the league, we were able to win a large majority of our summer and preseason games, which is a testament to the strength of the team this year. We played a really tough schedule leading up to the league and we were in almost every game, but just came up short on getting some of those wins. I’m still satisfied knowing that we were able to make CIF again for the first time since my freshman year, and I hope that the team next year will be able to accomplish even more than we could this year.”