By Sunny Walia

SAN JOSE CALIF. — A buzzer-beating shot decided Silver Creek basketball team’s senior night against Piedmont Hills High School at home on Feb.9. A senior night celebrates seniors on the varsity.

A group photo was taken after all the seniors were introduced

(Photo Credits: Sunny Walia)

The seniors introduced themselves through a makeshift tunnel accompanied by lights, music and applause from the cheerleaders. The seniors who played were captains Apollo Eugene, Eric Mai, Viren Halaharivi and James Caricungan. Along with Zachary Ho, Brandon Huynh, Andrew Nguyen, Randall Lopez and Matthew Tran. The starting lineup for the Raiders consisted of Mai, Caricungan, Halaharivi, Ho and Eugene. Since it was senior night, there were posters hung on the wall for the players, life size of the Seniors and people in the stands with their own posters. 

At tip off, first possession had gone to the Pirates. The Raiders were playing a full court defense, suffocating the other team and forcing turnovers and back court violations on the Pirates. Trapping the ball handler, jumping on 50/50 balls and running down the shot clock, the Raiders were hustling on defense. With bigger forwards on Piedmont, the Raiders chose to play a harder perimeter offense, so that there wouldn’t be much of a post game near the basket. 

On offense, the Raiders were moving the ball, looking for open lanes to drive and get fouled, spotting up for open threes and creating opportunities for their teammates to score.  

Even with the Raiders playing good basketball, the game wasn’t a blowout. The Raiders had a lead on Pirates throughout the first two quarters, but the Pirates eventually started to pick up to cut down the lead. There were times in the game where the Pirates had been able to tie the score and take the lead in single digits. Towards the end of the 4th quarter, the Pirates had taken the lead by making long threes. 

However, the Raiders were able to force crucial turnovers, allowing more opportunities to take the score back. The crowd’s energy and volume picked up when the Pirates missed crucial free throws that could have ended the Raiders chances of winning the game. Offensive rebounds from the Raiders and foul trouble from the Pirates kept the ball in Silver Creek’s possession.

With 6 seconds left on the clock, the Raiders call a timeout. The score is tied at 50-50 and people in the stands begin to stand up and take their phones out. Halaharivi inbounds the ball to Mai, Mai passes to Caricungan, Carciungan dribbles past the perimeter defense, takes two steps to double pump the ball between two defenders and lays it in with his left hand to beat the buzzer, winning the game at 52-50. Steven Acacia, a senior at Silver Creek High School, said “Senior Night was a blast. It’s always fun to go out and support your friends. In all, it was a fun night and great game.”