After graduating five starting seniors, the boys’ basketball team had a lot of positions to fill. Fortunately for the Owls, many new freshmen, sophomores and juniors decided to play. The Owls had a lot of work cut out for them this season to prepare for a difficult league.

In the league opener game, point guard co-captain freshman Wells Fowler put up 13 points and forward co-captain junior Aidan O’Donnell added ten, but the Owls fell short against Orcutt losing 71-36. The Owls gained good game experience and recovered in their following games by losing to Foothill Tech only 47-30. In the Foothill Tech game, junior Jackson Hurley led the Owls with 11 points, nine of which were three-pointers.

The turning point of the team’s season was the Besant Hill game, where the Owls came up short 60-56 after Besant Hill pulled ahead in the last 45 seconds. Hurley was hot from the three-point line, hitting seven and scoring a total of 25 points, with sophomore Ty Trosky adding 12.

Coach Carlos Guerrero said about the players, “One thing that we can take from this season is that no matter what happens in the course of the game, winning or losing, I can depend on each and every single one of them to play with heart, intensity and desire.”

After the Besant Hill game, the boys bounced back and won their first game of the season against Dunn 65-55. Freshman Christian Branch was on fire from behind the arc, scoring five three-pointers in the third quarter and scoring 20 points overall. Freshman Spencer Turner and Hurley hit seven three-pointers combined.

The Owls continued with their momentum, beating both Midland and Ojai Valley 80-37 and 60-44. Yet again, both Branch and Hurley dominated the three-point line, Branch with eight and Hurley with six. Branch ended the game with a high score of 32 and Hurley with 23. However, what played a huge role in those games was the Owls defense.

The boys went 3-2 in league and overall 3-12.

Wells Fowler said, “It was a building season because we lost a lot of good senior players. In the beginning we lost a lot of games, but we learned, worked and got better. Toward the end we started winning games, and now we are headed to the playoffs and we are excited.”