BVH boys’ basketball suffers a dramatic loss against SYH

At last, a highly anticipated game finally approached the doorstep of Bonita Vista High’s (BVH) gym. On Jan. 11, 2023, BVH varsity boys’ basketball went up against the notorious San Ysidro High (SYH) team. BVH’s gym was packed significantly early–before the start of the game–with students from different schools, and eager staff and parents. This game was sold out and had a large crowd due to the presence of the highly touted SYH players, guard and senior Mikey Williams (1) and swingman and senior JJ Taylor (2). After a long battle, the game ended with a score of 83-64, SYH with the victory.

In the first quarter, the initial pace was quick as both teams came out off the jump fiercely and ready to go. In the first couple of minutes, SYH took an early 10-2 lead, causing the BVH crowd to get nervous, but shouting motivating cheers to uplift their team. As more minutes passed by, BVH caught up, bringing the score to 19-16 at the end of the first quarter. The two teams looked evenly matched in the second quarter causing BVH’s student section to have an uproar in hope for the game. The half ended with a score of 36-31, BVH in the lead.

“Our team is very [close] together. They care about each other, and they’re going to do whatever is necessary to make sure they support one another. So I thought that that was a good thing to take away from the game,” BVH varsity boys’ head coach Don Dumas said. 

The third quarter started off smoothly with BVH still keeping their lead at the start. However, after a few minutes passed, there was a fight in the middle of the court due to a scuffle between a BVH and SYH player. The fight was caused due to SYS point guard and freshman Ty Ingram (5) pulling on the jersey of BVH small forward and senior Michael Barragan (11). This caused a large portion of staff and BVH’s bench players to run on the court and break the fight. Because of this, the game was put on hold for about five minutes so that the officials could understand what happened and discuss what they should do. Unfortunately this led to a handful of BVH’s players being ejected and forced to sit on the bench for the remainder of the game. 

“So the ultimate start of it [the fight] was an intentional foul by one of the players on San Ysidro’s team. Now our player [Barragan] lost his cool and pushed him [Ingram] as a result of being pulled down by the intentional foul. That then resulted in their player pushing ours even harder, [causing both teams to start a scuffle]. So it just kind of snowballed,” Dumas said. “The officials did what they are supposed to do but I wish they would have taken things into context a little bit and realized our guys didn’t run off the bench swinging, but trying to defend their friend.”

After this drastic incident in the third quarter, SYH took the lead and never looked back, causing the downfall of points for BVH. BVH did hit a couple of three pointers in this quarter, but SYH held a 10 point lead while heading into the fourth quarter with a score of 48-58. In the final quarter, SYH began rapidly building their existing lead with steals and a few dunks with the help of Williams and Taylor. They held their lead and finished the game with a final score of 83-64.

“I think we did well on sharing the ball. I also think our defensive effort was very good, so I just think making shots is something that we got to improve on. [At the end of the day], I think we performed pretty well,” Dumas said.

Even with this five star-acclaimed player on SYH, BVH was able to shut down Williams, holding him to a mere three points in the first half, and only 10 overall at the end of the game. The leading scorer for SYH was Taylor with a whopping total of 32 points and the leading scorers for BVH was guard and senior Jesus Figueroa (1), and an outstanding performance by power forward and sophomore Aaron Owens (22). Overall, BVH fought with a strong effort the whole game, even after they lost some players after being ejected. For the rest of their season, Dumas expresses how he and his team feel confident about their abilities and take pride in their hard work they put in for this game and for the rest of the 2022-23 season. 

“We’re going to continue to play every game and every possession like it’s our last and [this game was proof to show that]. I think we’re going to definitely make some noise in the playoffs,” Dumas said.