By Olivia Krueger, Sports Editor and Vivian Yenson, Staff Writer
Coming off of a tremendous victory from Edison on Tuesday, the Barons boys’ basketball team fell 65-79 to the Marina Vikings on their last game of the season. Outmatched in height and speed, the Barons were unable to take a lead the entire game.
In the first quarter, Head Coach D’Cean Bryant deviated from his usual starting lineup to give the other seniors a chance to become starters at least once in their high school career. Nevertheless, this change proved ineffective as the Barons failed to score within the first two minutes and Bryant began rotating in his usual starters. The Barons, however, were still down 9-13 as Bryant continued to sub in different players, hoping to find the spark to ignite the offense. By the end of the quarter, Marina still led by five points, with a score of 13-18.
“I was just looking for somebody to give it some effort. Tonight, I just feel like we just never gave an honest effort to a certain degree. I feel like some guys did, but the emotions from Tuesday’s game made us a little lackadaisical”, said Bryant.
After a rough first quarter, Marina began the second quarter with a layup, but junior Garrett Young responded with two points of his own. However, a countless number of fouls on the Barons cost them many points and increased the score deficit. Poor defense and a slow offense throughout the quarter lead to the Barons trailing 26-35 into halftime.
The third quarter began with a foul by Marina and freshman Jeremiah Davis making one of his free throws to add another point to the Barons’ score. The Barons fouled several more times, thus widening the score gap between the teams. Junior Severo De La Riva made several shots and even picked up Marina’s numerous fouls afterward, but his eight points in this quarter were not enough to help the team take the lead. At the end of the quarter, Marina scored a buzzer beater to increase the gap to 48-65.
Already trailing by 17-points coming into the final quarter, a comeback seemed inevitable for the Barons. The Barons’ defense was unable to stop Marina’s powerful offense as they allowed three straight layups. However, on court altercations lead to multiple technical fouls called on the Vikings. As the quarter came to a close, seniors were constantly rotated in for their last few minutes of their high school career. Despite the 65-79 loss, the seniors were making the most of the night on the court to take in their final game as a Baron.
