In one of the most intense games of the matches, the EABH Hawks basketball placed 4th place in the Final Four competition in their game against the Graded Eagles. Despite the lack of the Hawks's spirit in the audience due to the Lady Hawks’ soccer game overlapping with this one, the boys brought the game to a good start and pushed through the other quarters.
Team captain Lincoln Pfile (3) made the first point of the game followed by Lucas Chen (14) demonstrating the amazing team chemistry the boys have had since the first season of ISSL, where the athletes qualified for the national competition. The first quarter came to an end with a score of 9x18 closely competing against the tall players of the opposing team. The second quarter did not have much of a change as the Hawks kept their score of 9 while the Eagles scored an additional 27 points finishing the second quarter with 9x45. During this time frame, the athletes briefly lost their spirit as the other team’s points were far ahead of theirs, until the half time, when Coach Tamara and Coach Fred urged the team to get the athletes back in the game rather than instantly giving up with such a difference.
By the third quarter the spirits were back up and the boys basketball team made 16 points with synchronized plays and taking advantage of the fouls Graded was making, increasing the score by 6 points: there were 2 free throws made by Lincoln Pfile (3) and one by Eduardo Calixto (1). Team captain made a three pointer followed by a dynamic play by Eduardo Calixto, stealing the ball in their zone and speeding to the other side scoring a point. The score increase brought the energy back up for both the audience and the team as the game had urging players on both ends, leading to Lincoln Pfile scoring another three pointer and making both 2 points during free throws. At the end of the quarter, Graded was in the lead with a score of 25-55, a difference of 20 points, 16 points lower than the difference in the second quarter.
During the final quarter of the game, the Hawks continued to score various free throws and layups enduring the fouls being made on them which later resulted in minor injuries having Edward Mason (12) to be subbed out with captain Lincoln Pfile who later made another three pointer. The coaches also subbed in the benched players during the last two minutes allowing every athlete to play without too much concern over overturning the score as Graded was unfortunately far ahead. Within the final two seconds of the match, the score was already defined as 32-65 bringing an emotional conclusion to the games EABH had the honor to play in The American School of São Paulo, Graded. The final score was a considerably good increase for a group of athletes who faced low spirit throughout majority of the game. The boys gathered for a moment between Coach Tamara and Coach Fred; nearly everyone had tears in their eyes. Despite the score not being what the school had hoped for, the team qualified for a national competition placing us within the top 5 of american, pan-american and british schools in Brazil in Basketball.
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