HSMSE's Boys Varsity Basketball Team Wins The Division For The First Time In The School's 15 Year History

The HSMSE Boys Varsity Basketball team won their division for the first time in 15 years. The team’s strong defense, experienced players, and improved ball movement led to a 13-1 record for the Dragons.

HSMSE’s returning players have developed their skills and gained experience, leading a more mature team on the court. The team’s growth led to them winning close games they lost in previous years.

The Dragons’ superior defense was the result of hard work and dedication. Turnovers and empty possessions were common for opposing teams who couldn’t handle their relentless pressure.

“The players love to play defense, to double team, get steals, and shut down their opponents,”coach Richard Epstein said. “That was inherent in their style of play. You can't teach that type of commitment.”

They focused a lot of their energy on gaining a defensive advantage. The team relied on their defensive prowess to stop opponents from scoring many points.

“We scouted teams more and we would shut down their best player and that became part of our identity,” junior Elijah Axt said. “We were a defensive team; we’d hold [the opponents] to 40 points, and we’d score 60.”

Junior Alex Guimaraes led the team with 16 rebounds per game. It was part of the team’s increased focus on rebounding, as their starters averaged 11 more rebounds per game than last season. The players were more equipped to collect the loose balls due to their better positioning and larger size. 

“We all grew and got bigger and stronger and boxed out more and had a bigger commitment to rebounding,” Axt said. “This created many second chances for our offense while also limiting the opponents’ possession.”

Junior Tomer Oron led the team in scoring with over 22 points per game due to his multidimensional offensive style. Oron’s willingness to go right at defenders and score in the paint perfectly complimented his excellent shooting ability from beyond the arc. His aggressive drives to the basket forced defenders to back off giving him more wide open looks and enabling him to knock down more shots.

The team advanced to the third round of the playoffs before their season ended with a loss to the top seeded Uncommon Charter High School. The Sabers were already the favorites for the game, but once HSMSE’s star center Alex Guimaraes suffered an injury early in the game, the Dragons struggled to keep up and lost by a wide margin.

HSMSE looks to build on their success next season with most of their squad intact. Senior Jasper Saar is the only starter not returning to the team. Junior Justin Lin, this year’s sixth man, will be expected to join the starting lineup and make an impact. They’re excited to defend the division crown and prove this year wasn’t a fluke.

- Thomas O'Shea also contributed to this article. 

A tough season for HSMSE boys’ basketball team

HSME Dragons / T. Henning

The boys varsity basketball team at the High School for Math Science and Engineering battled hard this season, losing some close games, and finishing 3-9. Although they had a losing record, they gained valuable experience in the process.

This season the team played twice against Chelsea Career and Technical Education splitting the two meetings. The first time HSMSE beat Chelsea by 29 points, but the second game they had a difficult loss, losing by four points. “I was disappointed the first time we played them we blew them out, the second time we played them they had a guy that they didn’t have the first time,” said Kavan Edwards, the team’s captain.

Edwards played a critical role, leading the team in scoring in all of their games. Unfortunately he is a senior at HSMSE, making his shoes that much harder to fill for next season. “Dionys Gutierrez , Kofi Kordie and Maxwell Drogin has [sic] to step up big time next season,” said Edwards.

This season six freshman made the team, which is nearly a third of the team. In the past the team was mainly made up of mostly upperclassmen . “In the past five years, we’ve never had more than one freshman on the boys' varsity basketball team. The skill level varies widely,” said Coach Richard Epstein “There has been tremendous growth and development for all of this year’s freshmen.”

The team is going to have a massive change to their roster next season. With the graduation of the seniors all  the other players will have to improve. “[Their] willingness to learn and to work hard is terrific,” said Epstein.

Shawn Watts
Justin Wu

Frustrating season for the Dragons

Hsmse boys' basketball team / Sara Louie

This season the boys’ basketball team of the High School for Math, Science, and Engineering failed to make the playoffs unlike last year. In the 2010-11 season, the team made it to the playoffs with a 6-6 record and eventually was eliminated in the first round. Going into the second half of this season, the team was 4-2 with high chances of exceeding last year’s record and making it to the playoffs once again. As the second half of the season progressed, the team had a 6-3 record with five games remaining and needed only one win to advance to the playoffs.

The team at that point was at its peak and things fell apart as the team went on to lose their next five games. The team in the end had a 6-8 record with no chance of making it to the playoffs. “We played five very competitive teams, one team on our level, and one team that we should’ve beaten,” said junior forward Kavan Edwards. Edwards, who missed one game this season, led the team in scoring. He felt that other teams adjusted to their style of play when they faced them for the second time. “Our team kept playing the same way through out the season and the other teams seemed to have caught on to our style of play.”

Even though the team didn't make it to the playoffs they put up a great effort and in the end, just came up a bit short. The team will make this season a learning experience for next season and will try to build on the new talent they receive in order to surpass this year’s performance.

HSMSE Dragons win against Lab Museum's Gators

On December 20th, the HSMSE Dragons faced off against the Lab Museum's Gators and produced a 51-40 victory over the Gators. The game seemed easy for the Dragons as they were constantly ahead throughout the entire game. The Dragons made great passes leading to beautifully executed assists.

The Dragons opened up the game strong, exercising their superior physical abilities in terms of height and speed. The Dragons were able to get down the court and execute their plays with ease. The Gators let them into the paint making scoring for the extremely tall Dragons a breeze. The Gators also let many of the players remain undefended allowing for easy three pointers. During the second quarter the Dragons lost their lead because of the sluggishness they showed on the court after seemingly tiring out from the first quarter.

Throughout the second half of the game the Dragons were able to rack up the points, but not without cost. The Dragons racked up nine fouls, giving the Gators the points that they needed. Eli Auslander of the Dragons said, “Fouls were our Achilles heel of the game and we gave up shots and without them we would have done much better.” That is the main thing that the Dragons needed to work on.

Overall the Dragons played excellently and have been doing very well this season in general standing 3-1. A much better position than they were last season and they have been improving over the past few years in general. It is still early in the season, but we are all hoping for a very successful for the Dragons.

HSMSE's big win

The High School for Math, Science, and Engineering varsity basketball team had their fourth game on Monday, December 19, 2011 against Lab Museum United and won 51-40. They started their game strong and were weak into the second half. With their star player Kavan Edwards scoring 25 points, 6 rebounds, and 1 assist he contributed to the Dragons' final score much more than his teammates.

Even though Edwards put up almost half of his team’s points, it was not a one man show. Dylan agyemang scored 12 points and got 2 rebounds, with the majority of his points scored by assists from Eli Auslander.

HSMSE started their first half with a lead of 10-0 and played good man to man defense on Lab Museum United. Then the half ended with HSMSE leading 28-18. When the second half started they switched up their defense and played zone for the rest of the game. As a result, during the second half the team’s defense did not play well and gave up points much more often than their first half. In an interview with the team’s coach Epstein said, “We had a strong first half, but in our second half we played bad…we allowed them to score easily and gave up too many free throws.”

The team’s weak points during the second half was mostly their defense. They were not able to block passes. With Lab Museum United getting their passes through, they scored a lot of points. Another obstacle for HSMSE was their fouls. They forced a lot of fouls, which added up to a large portion of the opponent’s score.

HSMSE started their game great and ended their first quarter with a decent lead. However, their flaws were increasing and their defense played poorly. If they focus on how they played today they can find out where they went wrong and improve in their future games.

Dragons Boys Basketball falls short in playoffs

Courtesy of T. Henning

Making their first playoff appearance in five years, the High School for Math, Science and Engineering Dragons traveled all the way to Jamaica, Queens to face the High School for Law Enforcement & Public Safety Leopards Wednesday evening.

Eager to prove themselves after narrowly missing the playoffs last season, the Dragons entered the game with hopes of making a Cinderella-type run in the PSAL Class-B playoffs. Those hopes were quickly extinguished when the Leopards exploded with a 13-2 finish of the second quarter to extend their lead to 24-8 at halftime. Senior Chris Yates attributed the Dragons slow start to their inability to handle the pressure of a playoff atmosphere, "I think we could have played smarter because we were rushing our shots and letting the pressure of making it to the finals affect us too much.  We also could have been more patient in the first half to get our offense going because what really got us was that we couldn't set up our plays correctly."

The Dragons, however, did not go away quietly. They stayed within one point of the Leopards in both the third and fourth quarters, losing the second half of the game by only two points. The tenacity the Dragons showed in the second half was a testament to the resiliency that has kept them competitive the entire season.

The deficit they suffered during the first half though, proved to be too large to overcome, with the Leopards moving into the second round with a 52-34 victory.

For a team that didn't return any starters, Yates reflected on the Dragons unexpected playoff berth. "It feels really good and rewarding seeing as how in the beginning of the season I didn't think this would even be possible. I saw the whole team from last year graduate, so I thought we would have to start from scratch.  Honestly, I didn't even think we were better than last years team, but apparently we were good enough to make it to the playoffs."