The Breakers’ Boys Basketball team inaugurated its 2024-25 season on Saturday. November 30th, away at Palo Alto High School, around two hours away from home. Despite a razor-thin margin of 23-27 to the Vikings at halftime, the Breakers could not cut Palo Alto’s lead and took a close loss, 60-51. However, the Breakers showed bright spots, with a double-double performance from Junior Brody Edmonds with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and 18 points from Junior Gabe Valencia, as well as their ability to compete with a team they had lost to last year, 57-44.
The Breakers know of the adversity they will face going into the new season. For starters, they have to compete with a much smaller roster of nine people in contrast to the twelve they had last year due to student lack of interest and injuries to key players such as Senior William Powley. In addition, the Breakers learned that they had been realigned to the Gabilan Division, the apex division governed by PCAL (Pacific Coast Athletic League) which oversees almost all of Monterey Country high school athletics. In Gabilan, the Breakers will face tougher opponents such as Carmel, Salinas, Palma, and 2024 state champion Monterey. However, the Breakers remain optimistic, Sophomore Sergen Serttunc remarked, “We’ve got a strong, motivated group of guys who are ready to compete, and I’m excited to see us take on the challenge of playing in the Gabilan League. It’s a great opportunity to test ourselves against higher-level competition”.
After Palo Alto, the Breakers took on the Seaside Spartans in their home opener on Wednesday, December 4th. They won in a rout, 85-27, behind a 50-13 halftime lead and great performances from Andrew Nimri (10) who had 21 points and 8 rebounds, another double-double from Brody Edmonds (11) with 11 points and 13 rebounds, and 14 points from Sergen Serttunc (10).
That Saturday, December 7th, the Breakers took on an opponent they had not met in recent years, Menlo School from Atherton, CA. The Breakers got out to a 7-point lead at halftime, but they could not maintain their advantage and lost 62-59 despite a 28-point outburst from Andrew Nimri (10) and 13 and 12 points from Sergen Serttunc (10) and Gabe Valencia (11) respectively.
Next, on December 10, the Breakers faced rival Stevenson away and took a dominant win 64-30 after out-scoring the Pirates 20-6 in the first quarter. The Breakers were aided by 23 and 13-point efforts from Andrew Nimri and Gabe Valencia respectively along with 14 rebounds from Brody Edmonds.
Three days later, they took on the Hilmar Yellowjackets at home in the Breaker Classic, a short series where the High School Boys’ and Girls’ Basketball Teams of Pacific Grove and Carmel get the chance to play teams they would not usually play such as Hilmar who pay to enter the tournament. The Breakers won their game handily, 78-50, behind 31 points from Andrew Nimri (10), 19 from Gabe Valencia (11), and 10 points and 12 rebounds from Brody Edmonds (11). They were scheduled to face Saratoga High School the next day, but the game was canceled along with the rest of the tournament games for Saturday, December 14th, due to power outages.
