IRVINE – Many Beckman students entered their home gym last Friday night, January 9, wearing jerseys of their favorite professional sports teams or their own Patriot sport jerseys. Despite the jersey entourage of various teams, the spectators were there to support the Beckman Varsity Boys' Basketball team as they went up against the visiting Irvine Vaqueros. The tremendous support from fans, however, was not enough, as Beckman lost, 50-58. 

In the first league game against the Irvine Vaqueros, the Patriots hit a “dry spell” in the first quarter. The fast tempo of the game enabled both teams to trade baskets, but the Patriots failed to execute their shots. Not until the final minute did senior Rhett Bender, #42, center, make a free throw to put the Patriots on the scoreboard. This single and only point of the quarter led into an explosion of mad cheering despite the Vaquero 15 point lead. At the end of the quarter, Beckman was behind 1-16.

After regrouping in the quarter break, the Patriots rallied off the crowds’ enthusiasm. Sophomore Justin Arios, #12, guard, made two three-pointers while senior Grant Itow, #21, guard, attacked the paint. The cheering and chanting after every basket fueled the Patriots to outscore the Vaqueros, 15 points to 11. “We were not making our shots in the first quarter,” said Itow, “but the crowd really helped a lot with our momentum in the second quarter.”

Throughout the whole game, the Patriots never stopped attacking offensively or relaxing defensively. According to one Beckman spectator, senior Kegan Hagerott, Bender played with “ferocious dinosaur like defense.” Despite Bender being sick with a cold, he stole the ball three times and assisted his teammates to finish the play on the fast break.

At the start of the fourth quarter, the Patriots were down, 26 – 40. The fourth quarter turned into a chess game of stopping the clock and getting to the line. Senior forwards, Paul Goodman, #30, and Chris Im, #7, scored a total of 12 points in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 11 points with five minutes left in the game. After purposely sending Irvine to the line and driving to the basket and getting to the free-throw line, Beckman cut the lead to five points with 1:21 left in the quarter. Irvine and Beckman traded quick baskets but Irvine again brought their lead back to eight points with one minute left in play.

One of the key plays was when Arios stole the ball with 51 seconds and passed it to junior Santiago Bochi, #44, forward, who made a three-pointer, cutting the lead back down to five points. Despite this late surge, this would be the last as the Vaqueros' defense prevented the Patriots from scoring for the rest of regulation.

The Patriots outscored the Vaqueros 24-18 in the fourth quarter. However, they only made 14/29 free throws in the entire game. The team had “good looks,” said head coach Fischel. “We just could not put the ball in the basket. The concentration has to be better and the intensity of play has to be executed for the whole 32 minutes."

With this loss, the Patriots now have a record of 9-9. They play away against Laguna Hills this Friday, January 16, at 7:00 pm.