The Upper St Clair Basketball team recently traveled to North Carolina to compete in a skilled tournament and visit a couple of well-known basketball universities. Along with the competitive teams they played against, the main highlight of the trip was getting to visit schools such as Duke, UNC, and Wake Forest.
After settling into the hotel, the team participated in a light practice on Duke’s court to get ready for the games they were about to play. Then they left the college and settled into their hotel. According to Jake Foster one of the most exciting parts of the trip was being able to go get food with the team. Jake said, “Apart from basketball, my favorite part of the trip was just being able to spend more time with the team. We would get breakfast together in the morning and then something else at night after we played all our games.” Overall, these first couple of activities got the team acclimated to the new environment so that they could do well on their first game the next day.
The first game they played was against a talented team from Maryland that was led by a ranked 4-star shooting guard. The challenge of a tough opponent would provide a good test for USC. The Panthers, however, came out on top and took the win 56-53! Junior guard Luke Machinsky explained what he thought made them the better team that day. Luke has been hurt since the beginning of the season, so he has been on the side watching the games. He said, “Our chemistry was noticeably better than the other team, even though they had exceptional talent we had a more developed offense that incorporated all parts of our team.” The Panthers only played one other team later that day where they won 76-58.
After the games, the team visited the University of North Carolina which is a very famous basketball school that plays in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They got to tour the campus which included North Carolina’s football field and basketball arena. The team also got to visit Wake Forest University the same day where they had a similar tour. Some of the players met and talked to a Wake Forest basketball player who told them about his experiences as an athlete playing basketball in college so far.
Overall, the trip was very successful as the Panthers won both of their games, and they got to bond as a team before their coming playoff run back in the WPIAL.