Last Tuesday night, the boys’ basketball team brought their A-game, winning against Dakota 58-55 at home.

The night started out with players Anthony Benard ’23, Karter Richards ’24, Peter Ulku ’23, Donovan Moody ’23 and Tyler Brien ’22.

“We’re a young team (because) we’ve lost four of our starters from our team last year,” coach Stephen Benard said. “We’ve got a bunch of young guys. We’re in games 12 and 13 now, so they’re playing a lot better as a team.”

Ulku led the team off in the tip off, but Dakota ended up snatching the ball, leading them to start on offense.Dakota’s Tymias Williams scored the game’s first point. From there, the team switches to offense, where Anthony Benard gives South their first point.

“If everybody’s bringing the energy, it’s an easy environment to play with,” Benard said. “It helps the ball go into the basket more.”

With that positive input, the team ended the first quarter 14-8 with South in the lead. During the second quarter, Benard stole the ball and made a free throw with about four minutes left in the quarter.

“They knocked down the big shot,” S. Benard said. “When we needed a basket or when momentum was going the other way, we were able to knock down our shots.”

With just two minutes left, Nicholas Borrego ’22 passed to Ulku, who managed a backwards layup with the defense pounding on his back. The team closed out for halftime, winning 27-5.

South opened the third quarter with the same starters as before. Benard gave the team the first point and an impressive three-pointer from just shy of the inbound line. This closed out the quarter at 43-36.

After a nail-biting fourth quarter, South ended the fourth quarter with a satisfyingly close victory, 58-55.

“Something we haven’t been able to do is to put all four quarters together, and we did that tonight,” A. Benard said. “We just kept playing together and let the energy ride on all the way into the fourth quarter.”