On Thursday, January 11, Irvington Boys Basketball’s home game against Mission San Jose resulted in a loss of 43-75. Despite ending with a 32-point deficit, Irvington Vikings showed significant resilience in the second half of the game as they battled back from a slow start.

The first two quarters saw MSJ take advantage of Irvington’s aggressive defense and pull ahead to a large lead. Despite this, Irvington Cheerleading was able to revitalize the audience with fiery chants — maintaining the mood to an overall high.

“We thought it was going to be a nice match-up with a bit of a challenge,” explained team captain Krish Bahel (12). “We came in expecting them to be a slower team that ran more plays, but they surprised us in the first half with a lot of fast transitions.”

According to Ved Srivastava (12), this was due to a lot of players on the team being absent due to injuries. As a result, a lot of remaining players played positions they were unfamiliar with.

Despite these setbacks, Irvington Viking’s steady and consistent offensive in the third quarter allowed them to close in on the gap. The quarter started on a high note as Bahel scored a free throw and Irvington began to chip away at the large deficit. By the five-minute mark, the team brought the score to 15-51 with a 36-point deficit with a crucial 3-pointer as well as two successive free throws. 

“What we told ourselves was to go ahead and challenge them aggressively, 1-on-1,” explained Coach Ron about their strategy for the last two quarters. “I just wanted to see what battle the players had inside of them, and they proved that in those 1-on-1 situations they can actually win those small battles”

In the last four minutes, a 3-pointer from Ved Srivastava (12) as well as a hook shot each from Harold Lee (12) and Rahul Shah (12) ended the score at 22-59, displaying the team’s resilience in the face of adversity. 

“In the second half, I’d say I did well in scoring. As a team we played well on both the offensive and defensive side,” Srivastava explained. “Even though we lost the first half pretty badly, we competed hard in the second half which won us that half.” 

The last quarter opened with high energy and aggression from Irvington and MSJ as Gavin Ye (12) and Srivastava made a 3-pointer each. With three more hook shots and jump shots, the team closed their deficit to 32 points and ended with 43-75. Overall, they were able to outscore Mission in the second half.

“I think we need to improve our effort the most,” Srivastava reflected. “Even though we were short-manned, we still have to give a lot of effort even though we might not be comfortable in what we’re doing.

According to Coach Ron, other areas of improvement include putting on more full-court pressure and focusing on what defenses the team needed to run in order to stay healthy.

Irvington Boys Basketball’s next game is a home game on Friday, February 2 against Washington High School.