The Judge Boys Basketball team recently finished their 2022-2023 season. The season was a successful one with a disappointing loss. The team went 2-4 in region, placing them 3rd in 3A. Their overall record, including games played outside of the 3A region, was 13-12 which means their record outside of region games was 11-8. Their out-of-region games, although doing better in them record-wise, were against tougher competition. Judge faced off against big 6A and 5A schools and won such as Juan Diego, Kearns, Roy, and Hunter. The team showed great potential in these games, yet couldn’t convert that success in the state tournament and in region play.
Perhaps the highlight of the season was the two games against Juan Diego, Judge’s rival school. The two teams played in two nail-biting games, with a combined difference throughout both games of just 3 points. In the first game against Juan Diego, a home game on January 13th, Aaydan Saucedo (a captain and the starting point guard for the team), showed why he finished 2nd in MVP voting. Aaydan took over during the third quarter, hitting six shots in a row during the 3rd quarter and keeping his team in the game. However, Juan Diego hit some big shots down the stretch and ended up winning the game by four. The next game took place at Juan Diego. Tensions were at a high, as Judge looked for revenge. This game, Mauricio Lemus, the starting shooting guard for the team this year, got Judge off to a quick start, hitting four 3-pointers in a row. Then, during the rest of the first and second quarter, Manase Mangala (starting center for the team) led a defensive clinic, and going into the second half Judge led by 10. But, Juan Diego came out of the second half with newfound energy and the lead was quckly cut to just three. It was back and forth for the rest of the game, but with some big shots down the stretch by Aaydan Saucedo, Jackson Boltax (starting small forward), and Maurcio Lemus, Judge prevailed with a final score of 42-41.
This year, the team saw some coaching adjustments as Zues Martinez, a skills trainer, joined the staff. The team speaks well of the new addition, saying that “he helped out a lot during practice” by training the team to be better ball handlers. The young team got even younger this year as 3 freshmen, Neur Deng, Majak Deng, and Aymen Ismali, got some serious varsity minutes. As Aaydan Saucedo described, next year, as the team loses two of their starting seniors and anchors of the team, Jackson Boltax and Manase Mangala, the team “will have a couple of younger guys that will have to step up.”