On Friday night, the boys’ basketball team won its home opener in front of a raucous crowd, taking the 2nd Annual Silent Night Game, 50-26, over the Ross School.

The Silent Night tradition has its roots at Taylor University in the 1980s. In the final home basketball game before the Christmas break, the Taylor students remain absolutely silent until the home team scores its 10th point. Then, 4,000 students shatter the silence and the game is actually delayed as the crowd pours onto the court. A season ago, the Blue Fan Group executed a smaller scale version to perfection in a 76-60 win over Rocky Point. The tradition continued on Friday night.

Ross opened the scoring in an eerily silent Swanson Gymnasium, but Mac Bohuny followed with a baseline jumper and a 3-pointer to give the Bears a 5-2 lead. A Harry Zhu steal and score pushed the lead to five and a Brandon Providence steal and score further extended it to 9-2. After several close calls that brought the Blue Fan Group to the edge of their seats, Seamus Scanlon finally took the lid off the crowd by splashing a 3-pointer to give the Brook a 12-2 lead. Ross closed the quarter with a 3-pointer to trail 12-5 after one.

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Scanlon opened the second quarter with a tough hanging layup. After a Ross bucket, Jai Narain drilled a 3-pointer and Zhu hit a layup to push the lead to 19-7. The Bears closed the half on a 8-3 run, capped by a Bohuny layup that just beat the buzzer, giving the Blue and White a 27-13 lead at the break.

In the third quarter, the Bears extended their lead to 19 after a four-point spurt by James Toney, but the Cosmos showed their mettle by closing the quarter on a 6-0 run to head into the final frame down 35-22. The Bears won the final period, 15-4, behind five points from Zhu. Alvaro Martinez Torres, playing his first season of basketball, was everywhere in the quarter, registering a block, a steal, and and putback layup.

With the victory the Bears improve to 29-0 all-time against the Ross School. Bohuny led all scorers with 14 while Zhu (10 points), Scanlon (7), John Eshirow (6), Providence (4), Toney (4), Narain (3), and Martinez Torres (2) provided a balanced attack.

After the game Taylor University expressed its approval of their co-opted Silent Night tradition:

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