Skyline men’s basketball is optimistic about the rest of their 2018-2019 season despite losing their last three games, the Trojans have enough talent and leadership on their roster to get them back on track before the midseason mark.

The Trojans’ home record currently stands at 2-2 and the Skyline College Classic basketball tournament starts this Friday, Dec. 7. This is a perfect opportunity for the team to defend their home court and set a tone of winning at home for the rest of the season.

Skyline has six sophomores and five freshmen on the roster this season, providing a solid foundation to make a playoff run.

“We want to get this group to play to the top of their potential,” Head Coach Justin Piergrossi said about his team. “Really looking for more and counting on our sophomores that have a little game experience to become more of leaders and lead us to where we want to go.”

Skyline’s second year players need to keep the locker room unified throughout the whole season if they want to see noticeable improvements. They are still in the early stages of the season, but the chemistry is the locker room is very good.

“We’re more passive this year, there’s a lot of ball movement, and a lot more guys can knock down shots,” sophomore player Moises Sandoval said. “We are as one and we never fall apart.”

When speaking about the strengths of Skyline’s offense, Sandoval said, “it involves everybody and everybody plays as one.”

The Trojans play a home game on Wednesday, Dec. 5 against Gavilan College, who are currently on four game win streak. If Skyline can get a win, it would provide much needed momentum going into this weekend’s tournament.

“I think the main thing for me and what I also try to get out of my teammates is confidence,” first year player Masie Mohammadi said. “When you have confidence you can play really well and when you have confidence you do the stuff that coach tells you to do like jump stop or make the extra pass.”

Mohammadi is currently the Trojans’ leading scorer, but he is not motivated by individual statistics.

“Yeah, being a freshman, it’s kind of cool being the leading scorer. But at the same time, we need to win games and that’s the most important part right now,” Mohammadi said.

If the team can keep their goals in common and consistently put the team’s success above their own, they should have no problem getting better. Hard work and diligence are key aspects of every successful team and Skyline’s coaching staff does an effective job exemplifying that to their players.

“For us, it’s really a daily thing trying to get a little better each and every single day,” Assistant Coach Eddy Harris said.

When discussing how the Trojans can get out their current losing streak, Harris said, “it starts in practice, if we can get a little better in practice, be a little more focused, we should be a little more engaged [for] a little longer, [then] that will take care of itself in game.”