Aragon boys varsity basketball defeated rival Hillsdale 61-55 on Feb. 21, overcoming a 14-point halftime deficit to win in the final minutes.
Hillsdale took control early, pushing the lead to 11 and forcing Aragon to call a timeout in the first quarter. The Dons had trouble getting into the paint and were beaten on the boards throughout the period, heading into the second quarter down 20-9.
The second quarter was similar, as Hillsdale extended the lead to 14, and Aragon continued to struggle. Back-to-back three-pointers from senior and guard Kaleb Brodeth kept the Dons within reach, and senior and center Thomas Luong added a basket and drew a foul. Aragon went into halftime down 40-26.
“We came out kind of sluggish, and that’s why we were down in the first half,” said head coach Eric Williams.
Despite trailing at halftime, players said the mood was focused rather than panicked.
“We’ve been in situations like this before, where we’re down by 10, 15 points going into halftime,” said senior and guard Armando Cajbon. “As a team, we knew what we needed to do to come back, and we came back and put it together during the game.”
The halftime talk was largely focused on making changes.
“We needed to completely switch up what we were doing,” said senior and wing Elias Ausiello. “Score more, get more stops, all that.”
Aragon completely turned it around after halftime. The players cranked up the defensive pressure, which produced steals and easier looks on the offensive end. Luong converted a layup, Brodeth hit 3-of-3 from the free throw line after drawing a foul and Ausiello scored and drew a foul of his own. Then senior and guard Charlie Platz hit a three-pointer, and a comfortable Hillsdale lead was suddenly down to one point, 43-44, heading into the fourth quarter.
The team was able to use this to make a sharp comeback.
“I wasn’t scoring much in the first quarter and I knew that, to help my team out, I was gonna need to get going,” Cajbon said. “Any drive I got or any shot I had, I would take it and just live with the results.”
Williams also pointed to the defensive shift as what flipped the game.
“We turned up the pressure, and that’s kind of our thing,” Williams said. “It led to some steals, easy buckets and some big shots.”
Platz followed his third quarter three with two more in the fourth quarter, pushing Aragon ahead 54-51. The Dons held on from there and closed it out 61-55.
Despite the lead, there were still some difficulties as the game came to a close.
“It was pretty stressful, going back and forth,” Brodeth said. “We even went down a few points, but we just had to stay together and trust each other to make the correct choices. I think we did that and I think we finished pretty good.”
With the victory, Aragon advanced to a CCS road game against Christopher High School on Feb. 24, with Williams noting that the mindset going in would not change much.
“No one controls our destiny,” Williams said. “We determine our destiny. We’re gonna go down there, shoot, play hard and control what we can control.”
However, Aragon lost to Christopher in the quarter finals, falling 78-58, and ultimately pushing them out of the CCS bracket. This concludes their season this year, leaving them with an overall record of 20-6.
