The GDS men’s varsity basketball team faced Cardozo in a scrimmage to open their season on Tuesday, Nov. 19. Despite strengthening their defense halfway through the game, GDS ended up losing 105–49.
Senior forward Tigin Unsal, who is one of the two seniors on the team, was injured during practice, so he could not play in the game. “Tigin’s injury hurt us,” head coach Marquis Bell said. “We’re missing his presence on the court as well as on the defensive end with his shot-blocking ability and his ability to run the court with the basketball.”
The game started out with missed layups from both teams. The scoreless streak continued until a Cardozo player made a layup three minutes into the quarter.
Later in the quarter, junior Julian Lucas blocked a shot and followed with a three-pointer, cutting Cardozo’s lead to five with about four minutes left in the quarter. For the rest of the quarter, GDS struggled to follow through on scoring opportunities, only scoring two more points. The quarter ended with GDS down 21–6.
Contrasting the first quarter’s start, Cardozo began the second quarter with a layup, followed by a GDS layup. While GDS’ offense was able to adjust to Cardozo’s fast-play style and get some more points up, their defense struggled on the counterattack and conceded thirty points in the second quarter. Cardozo led 58–17 going into halftime, forcing the Hoppers to make some major adjustments to stay in the game.
“We talked at halftime,” Bell said. “We did the things that we had to do to fight, and we made it a fight.”
Senior Christian Santos-Silva said Bell’s advice was to “just to go play basketball—stick to instincts and be yourself on the court.”
Going into the third quarter, GDS changed its strategy. They switched from player-on-player defense to each player covering a specific area of the court. Bell also had players sprint back on defense to counter Cardozo’s fast-play style, which proved to be helpful and forced Cardozo into harder shot attempts. The third quarter ended with GDS down 88–34.
Offensively, GDS significantly improved, scoring 17 points in the third quarter, as much as they scored in the previous two quarters combined. GDS also had a point differential of 13 points in the third quarter, which is better than their 15 and 26 differentials in the first and second quarters respectively.
In the fourth quarter, GDS scored 15 points, while only conceding 16. The Hoppers’ defense got better as the quarter went on. The fourth quarter was much closer than the previous ones, but GDS ended up losing the game 105–49.
“This was a tough game,” Bell said. “Cardozo is one of the best teams in the city this year, and they’re expected to be in the state championship.”
“As a team we could have worked on press breaks, getting open on offense and being more aggressive on defense,” junior Jacob Contee said.
Santos-Silva said, going forward, “Our mentality has to be being poised and confident; we need to understand we can compete, be aggressive and replicate locker room talk on the court.”
GDS will scrimmage Justice High School at home on Nov. 22.