Sotomayor boys basketball trending towards program’s first playoff berth with win over Stevens
The Wildcats are on the rise. Sotomayor defeated Stevens 48-38 on Wednesday night at Paul Taylor Fieldhouse , matching last season’s entire win total. But the more significant moment is that Sotomayor is one step closer to earning the boys basketball program’s first playoff appearance.
“We have a chance to make the playoffs and do something special and make history,” Sotomayor senior center Demian Joyner said. “We just didn’t want to let that chance get away.” With Wednesday’s win, Sotomayor is in third place in District 28-6A with a 9-4 district record. The top four teams in each district advance to playoffs. Getting into position to contend for a playoff spot has not been easy. The Sotomayor program is just in its third year of existence. District 28-6A houses Brennan, which is a perfect 12-0 in district play so far and is currently No. 1 in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches rankings for Class 6A. The Bears have multiple players with Division I college offers, including Houston signee Kingston Flemings. Harlan, which is in second-place in the district, has also made a playoff appearance in every season since Sotomayor opened in 2022. Fourth-place O’Connor trails Sotomayor in the district standings by just one game and the two teams split the season series, with O’Connor winning the last game by two points. “They’ve been through a gauntlet and I think that’s what’s making us have the perseverance,” Sotomayor coach James Joseph said. Joseph admitted that his team probably needs a “couple more” wins to be firmly in the postseason, but the Wildcats have a relatively favorable draw for the rest of the regular season. Sotomayor plays Taft on Saturday morning and Warren next Wednesday – it beat both teams by double-digits earlier this season. Sotomayor ends its regular season against Harlan, which it lost by only four points back on Jan. 10. Still, the Wildcats are not taking any opponent lightly. “Don’t let loose, don’t underestimate anybody,” senior guard Jasiah Saunders said about his team’s mindset. Sotomayor has been trending upwards, improving every season after going 5-28 overall and 0-16 in district play during its inaugural season. The 2023-2024 team went 16-17 overall and 9-7 in district. But Saunders added that last year’s team thought it would make the playoffs, only to finish fifth in district. “We thought we were going to make it,” he said of last year’s squad. “We got too high. With this team, we’re level headed. We’re just taking it one game at a time.” Saunders, the leading scorer in Wednesday’s game with 22 points, helped fend off a Stevens team that made a fourth quarter run. Stevens outscored Sotomayor 19-11 in the final quarter, but the Wildcats’ defense sealed the win as the Falcons tried to close the gap. “You can tell year one we made some young mistakes, inexperienced mistakes,” Joyner said. “But today you could really see the matur in our play style and how calm we are.” While the Wildcats are still a few steps away from officially locking up a playoff spot, their mounting success to this point can be attributed to the belief that the players have in each other. “I think what you’re starting to see is a brotherhood,” Joseph said. “ cliché, trust the process, but these guys come out and they work everyday to trust the process and they make the job fun.” Although making progress means a lot for seniors like Saunders and Joyner, it is clear that they do not want their last high school basketball season to end in the regular slate. “We have more work to do,” Saunders said. “We’re going to come together more as a team. get back to practice, hit it hard and hopefully we can exceed last year’s win total and make it to the playoffs.”
Texas Association Of Basketball Coaches Division I Bears Falcons Sotomayor Jasiah Saunders James Joseph Stevens Demian Joyner Harlan O'connor Brennan Joyner Taft Paul Taylor Fieldhouse Houston Warren Kingston Flemings
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