Varsity boys basketball falls to Palo Alto

Senior Spencer Wells goes for a basket in the fourth quarter.

The varsity boys basketball team (6-4) lost 62-51 to Palo Alto High School (8-1) yesterday, Wednesday, February 10.

The Eagles fell behind Palo Alto 40-14 at halftime before mounting a desperate push to make the game competitive before falling to the Vikings.

In the first quarter, the Eagles struggled to score, while the Vikings easily made baskets. Beginning the game with four three-pointers, and using several offensive rebounds, the Vikings surged to a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the night. The Eagles trailed at the end of the first 20-10.

In the second quarter, the Eagles did not score until senior Tim Vanneman’s basket with 2:15 left. They would only score one more basket the rest of the quarter, while Palo Alto benefited from multiple turnovers and overwhelming force from its center, Kevin Brown, whose rebounding and second chance points led to a 40-14 half time lead.

“He’s the biggest player in our league,” senior Sammy Meckler said. “It was tough because all their players were playing well. … There wasn’t one person we could ease off, so we had to spread out and give up good rebounding position.”

The Eagles returned from the locker room to tighten the game. At the end of the third quarter, it was 52-28 Vikings, but the Eagles had doubled their previous score.

Senior Sean Small and senior Spencer Wells, who had a game high 15 points, led the team to rally in the fourth quarter. Each made key three pointers, and the team implemented a full court pressure defense that led to turnovers from the Vikings and baskets for the Eagles. However, the Eagles weren’t able to make up the deficit from the first half.

The team has recently lost to the two top teams in its league because of cold starts in the first half. Team members said fixing this is one of the team’s main priorities heading into CCS.

“We need to play four quarters of great basketball… all four quarters with the same intensity and energy,” Sean said. “We could really dominate teams if we did that the entire game.”