CYO basketball was back this year for the first time since COVID and the Immaculate Conception Eagles were ready to play. The Eagles had a very slow start to the season when they lost to Holy Rosary in a blowout 76-33 game. 

The Eagles started to turn their season around after some tough losses and eventually finished the regular season with a record of 4-8, which was good enough to clinch the five seed in the playoffs. 2021 FM graduate and assistant coach of the year, Noah Swift shared his thoughts on the team’s progression throughout the regular season, “Obviously with a group of guys who have never played basketball together there’s going to be a learning period.” Once the Eagles got past some initial hardships, they started to click and play with each other with a common goal.

The Eagles had three key players to lead the way throughout the season. Seniors Nico Ricciardiello, Parker Kaczorowski, and Samuel Kuss were the main sources of scoring for the Eagles. The three gained some help from guards Riyyan Ahmed and Evan Newton. Junior Gehrig Garback, started to heat up at the end of the season and was the team’s leading scorer during the last four games. 

As the five seed in the league playoffs, the Eagles found themselves matched up against fourth seeded Epiphany for the third time. The two teams had split in the regular season with each game only won by two. The Eagles took a 25-10 lead going into halftime with everything looking good for them. Epiphany started to storm back in the second half and eventually took a one point lead with 30 seconds remaining to play. Down one with ball, the Eagles gave the ball to point guard Samuel Kuss who hit a floater to give them the lead. It was enough to get the win as no one scored for the remainder of regulation. 

The Eagles then found themselves matched up with undefeated one seed St. Rose in the semifinals of the playoffs. During the regular season the Eagles had lost two highly contested battles with St. Rose, both games only lost by single digits. Down the whole game, the Eagles cut the lead to four with just minutes to go, but it was not enough as St. Rose pulled away to get the win by a score of 73-65. It was a heart wrenching loss, but overall it was a great season for the Eagles.

 On the all-around improvement throughout the season Coach Swift said, “Overall, from day one to the last game of the season, the two teams that came out were night and day.” Immaculate Conception players will remember this historic season forever as the team’s rollercoaster ride of a season came to an end.