The boys varsity basketball team defeated Wilcox High School 64-60 in a comeback victory yesterday, Wednesday, January 13.

The team rallied to turn a nine-point deficit at the end of the third quarter into a four-point win.

The game started with Wilcox taking numerous outside shots and scoring a large number of their points off of three-point shots. LAHS had a slow start, leaving the Eagles down 36-31 at half time.

“We can’t play like we did in the first half,” junior Scott Yuan said. “We had problems rebounding and sometimes we played selfishly [on defense]; defense needs to come help out.”

After a third quarter that turned a 5-point deficit into a 9-point deficit, LAHS changed its game plan for the fourth quarter.

“[In the fourth quarter] it was a combination of the crowd, the energy, and the coach that motivated us,” sophomore Simon Rosenbaum said. “We decided we weren’t going to lose that game and really just put our minds to it to win it.”

Coach James Reilly told the team to stop focusing on “things that were useless” and to instead “focus on the next play.” This mentality, combined with Reilly’s constant drawing up of in-bound plays, led to a renewed energy in the fourth quarter.

“Our defense picked up, we played with urgency and we gave all we [had],” Scott said. “In the fourth quarter we were playing good team ball, attacking the net and making our free throws.”

After scoring 23 points in the fourth quarter, the Eagles hope to build off wins like this one.

“A win like this shows that our team is mentally tough,” Simon said. “We didn’t play our best game, but we really hung together and came through [in the end].”

The team’s next game is at Los Gatos High School on Friday, January 15 where team members hope to implement what they learned in Wednesday’s game.

“The difference between us and the other teams is we can play in clutch situations, but we can improve on defense,” Scott said. “There is no excuse not to play good defense.”