After a relaxing “snow” day and holiday festivity arising during the winter spirit week, students packed the gym with their festive fits for the last basketball game of the 2022 school year on Thursday, Dec. 15. 

The Phoenix started the game off strong, and the first quarter ended with a Phoenix lead of 14-8. The boys continued to uphold their lead through the second and third quarter with effective teamwork and impressive shots. The boys’ strong momentum was seen with a 10 point lead by the Phoenix in the fourth quarter. However, in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, the Huskies were beginning to pressure the Phoenix. “[The Huskies] are really talented…we played really hard but we need to cut down on silly mistakes and we’ll be good,” sophomore Will Beck said. 

The Huskies were able to make three three pointers in a matter of minutes, and after a few free throwers, the Huskies were in the lead. “We had a lead and we lost it,” senior Deric Gomado said. “We could have done a lot of things better. We had to phase guard [a player] the whole time and that didn’t really work.” 

Despite a jumpshot by senior Basit Qadri in the last few seconds of the quarter, the Phoenix lost with a score of 51-48. The Phoenix have lost extremely close games, such as the 57-51 loss against the Potomac Falls Panthers on Dec. 1, but this game was especially tough for the boys. “It was a tough loss, I feel like for the first three quarters we played good basketball,” junior Kyle Desai said. “We outplayed them, we made the shots, it’s just in the final four minutes, we got complacent and they took advantage.”

The next boys basketball home game will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 3. against Heritage High School.

Gallery • 6 Photos

Sarah Baig

Junior Daniel Okoye stares at the net as he prepares to take a foul shot.