Boys Team, Sting’s Season (so far)

Three weeks and seven games into the season, BSGE has yet to see a victory. The long and short of this season has been seven losses, all by twenty points of more. Mr. Anderson’s crew, mostly returning players from last year, has struggled to find a flow on the offensive side of the ball, with an overwhelming amount of turnovers to start off the ’08-’09 campaign. After finishing last year with a hard-fought win, the Sting have yet to find their rhythm.
BSGE’s first game of the season was also their first at home; a 31-75 loss. The Sting started off strong on the ball, trailing by only nine in the first quarter. However, the second quarter saw the game get blown open, as BSGE found themselves outscored by fifteen. The third brought only worse out of the boys in white; they lost the quarter 25-5. The Redhawks’ John Galimi was the catalyst for the CTEA offense, scoring thirty points to go along with his eight assists. BSGE shot 12-30 from the line, a 40% average. The Sting have not seen CTEA since this game, going 1-2 since the meeting and an even 2-2 on the season. The Redhawks’ sit sixth in the division, two places in front of BSGE.
The second game of the year brought a much better performance, regardless of the identical result. The Sting lost by only 22, keeping the game close for three of the four quarters of play. The second quarter again brought misery to the Sting, getting outscored sixteen points for a seemingly insurmountable halftime deficit of 24. Unlike the first game of the year, BSGE came out of the halftime break firing, outscoring harsh rival Newcomers 16-9. This was the first winning quarter of the season for BSGE. Sting nemesis John Patrick Williams held true to his name once again, notching 23 points and 6 assists. Going into the fourth quarter down 49-32, BSGE scored only 7 points in the fourth quarter, losing with a final of 39-61. Justin scored ten for the Sting, contributing to his masterful season.
Game three saw BSGE hold Renaissance to only 55 points, their best defensive performance of the season so far. BSGE went into the second half of the game with a lead of 16-13, their first post-quarter lead of the year. Vincent’s 15-point performance went to absolute waste as the bee’s lost the third quarter 23-5, blowing their only lead of the season in wide proportion. TRCS was led by Tenzin Samphel who notched 20 points and 3 assists. Justin scored in double-digits again, dropping eleven. BSGE lost its third straight game, 33-55.
Game four once again brought defeat to the Sting, as they were trounced by Robert F. Wagner, 31-81. The 50-point debacle came in their first road game of the year for BSGE. The first quarter of the game concluded 7-24, as BSGE found themselves trailing immediately out of the gate. The loss was BSGE’s fourth straight, and twelfth in their last thirteen. Steven Edwards, Wagner’s all-star forward, finished with 49 points and 14 rebounds; a tremendous double-double. Vince Dillon finished with eight points for BSGE. BSGE had a season-high 31 turnovers.
The fifth regular-season Sting game came on the road, taking the blueshirts to their second consecutive road match. The loss, a 24-68 defeat, brought BSGE another loss, their fifth of five. BSGE was simply outmatched by Aviation’s well-formed offense from the get-go. Jorge Soto scored 24 points, leading Aviation in points. Justin and Vince had 10 and 8 points respectively. Aviation had a healthy crowd in the stands for the game, a crowd that certainly did not let up over the course of the game. Playing on the road against a team with a distinct offensive system, BSGE simply found themselves outmatched.
Wednesday was undoubtedly BSGE’s best performance of the season, a game that starred a big crowd, a dramatic pace throughout all four quarters, and the bee’s first double-double of the season (Vince Dillion).  Trailing 9-17 after the first quarter, BSGE battled back hard and trimmed the deficit to only 7 points at the half. However, the Newcomers offense, combined with BSGE’s 23 turnovers was too much for Coach Anderson’s crew. Individual efforts shined in the Sting 44-69 loss; Justin finished with 8 points and an astonishing 19 rebounds, a team and season high. Vince finished the game with 20 points and 11 rebounds, and Christopher “Kritty” Kesoglides surprisingly finished his scrappy play with eight boards.
Starting junior sophomore, Oren Shafir said after the game, “We played our best so far this year, no doubt, but we need to learn to balance out our offensive game with our defensive game”. Even in their solid effort, BSGE was outscored in all four quarters of the game; further explaining Shafir’s reference to a lack of defensive and offensive balance.
Monday, BSGE’s most recent spectacle, saw the squad surrender a season-high 84 points to Information Technology HS on their home court. The road game was a rough one for BSGE, as they were only able to register 35 points. The Sting have only scored more than 40 points once this season. Three players were in double-figures for Info. Tech HS, two notching double-doubles. Lawrence Rossianno scored 17 and grabbed 20 (twenty!) rebounds. Rasheem Johnson scored 18 and picked up 17 boards, as BSGE found themselves tremendously out-rebounded. While Info. Tech scored in double-figures in four out of four quarters, BSGE was only able to score 10 or more in the first, then scoring 9, 8 and 8 to close out the game. While this game is a set-back, Wednesday’s performance saw plenty of potential to build on, regardless of the 84 surrendered in this one.
The boys in blue, white and yellow can look forward to their next few games and build off of the strong performance that they put through in all four quarters on Wednesday night. BSGE sits eighth out of eight in their division, a division with only two teams over .500. With thirteen games remaining, there is massive potential for the Sting to step up and get some victories; push the envelope for playoff positioning. The season that runs into mid-February still has plenty of life, and BSGE has a squad determined to grind out victories.
Sting had one more game on Wednesday but it was too late for press time so the record is one game off.