It was something in the air on Tuesday evening in the Lynbrook gym, as the trio of Boys Basketball teams all had energy games. The matchups for the evening were Frosh versus Soquel, and JV and Varsity hosting rival Monta Vista.
If warmup shooting was to be informative to the game, one would think that the Lynbrook Freshman would have to have to deal with some serious outside shooters in their opponents, the Soquel Knights. As the first game of the afternoon/evening tipped off, the Vikes jumped out to a quick first quarter lead over the Knights 15-6 with Tyler Li scoring nine points. The shots started falling for the Knights in the 2nd quarter and the Vikes held only a 2-point advantage going into the half.
The third quarter was fairly even, but then the Vikes absolutely lit up Soquel in the 4th quarter by outscoring them 24-6. Tyler Li added 16 fourth quarter points, leaving him with 27 for the game. The Soquel shooters, looking good pre-game were also hounded by tight man-to-man defense the whole game - especially by a stellar effort by Rishi "Dom" Dommeti. The Frosh play later this week in more non-league contests against Menlo and Wilcox.
The JV Matchup was a back and forth affair the entire game and one of the Vikings most balanced contests all season. After the first quarter the score was 16-16. At halftime, the Matadors led 32-30. After three quarters Monta Vista led 46-44. With fifty seconds left, Lynbrook scored a layup that made the game a one-point affair, with MV up 53-52. With 34 seconds left on the clock MV, came around off a screen a scored a layup and picked up a very unwise foul. The foul shot was missed, but no Lynbrook player was in to box out the shooter who grabbed his own rebound before being fouled taking more time off the clock. Fortunate for the Vikes, the shooter missed both foul shots setting up the final Lynbrook possession.
The real excitement came in the last 26 seconds of the game. Down by three, Lynbrook had the ball and shot a three that closely missed, grabbed a rebound under the rim which itself rimmed out, grabbed another rebound and hustled the ball back out to the arc where there was a desperation three which was way off and rebounded by Monta Vista who immediately had it stolen from them. Lynbrook passed for yet another three which was off but rebounded again by Lynbrook and passed out for a fourth trey-attempt which hit front rim as the buzzer sounded. Monta Vista 55, Lynbrook 52 final.
In the Varsity Matchup, Monta Vista came right out of the opening tip with a three pointer, one of many for the evening, and right there put the Matadors in the lead for the remaining 31 minutes and 45 seconds. Monta Vista gained a 10-2 lead, then eventually ballooned their lead to as many as fifteen points in the first half. Notably, up 14-7, the Matadors went full court in 4.9 seconds and nailed a buzzer beating trey at the end of the first. At the half it was Matadors 30, Vikings 22.
The lead proved to be too much for the Vikes as it seemed each time they made a run, a timely three pointer by the Matadors would end the rally. Coming out of the second half, the Vikes had an 8-2 run ended by a MV combination of a three pointer, a layup, a steal, and another layup for a quick 7 points. MV also scored a quick six points to start the 4th quarter. Lynbrook started a slow rally over the last six minutes of play when Monta Vista stopped scoring, but the gap was too much. Final Score Monta Vista 52, Lynbrook 42. With the loss, Varsity is 3-2 in league.
JV and Varsity will face Cupertino on Thursday in League contests, and JV will also play MacDonald in a league matchup on Friday in a game that used to be scheduled on Saturday.
