On Friday, Jan. 26, the buzzer sounded loudly, securing a well-fought victory against San Marin for Redwood’s Unified Basketball Team. The Unified Basketball Team is derived from the Special Ed program, allowing students enrolled in the program to play basketball and compete against other schools’ Unified programs.

San Marin began the game strong and immediately took the lead. As the score jumped back and forth relentlessly, the game remained tied at 10-10 and then at 16-16. As the first half came to an end, San Marin had secured a four-point lead of 22-18.

As soon as the second half began, senior Ben Kelly, number 52, scored the first basket. Kelly, eager to score again, dribbled up to the three-point line and took the lead for Redwood with a three-point basket. Although the Giants were ahead, San Marin remained persistent.

San Marin’s players scored several times, taking the lead with four minutes left in the second half. The game was tense, but the Giants competed aggressively. With 24 seconds to go, the Giants were down by one. The lead scorer, Kelly, drove the ball straight to the hoop, tossing the game-winning shot into the basket. The crowd was roaring.

Kelly had an outstanding game, assisting and scoring the most baskets. Out of breath, he described his sense of duty and gratitude for his team.

“It felt amazing. The shot clock was kind of throwing me off in the first game, but I just had to get up there and put the ball in the net. I just feel really honored to be on a great team with great kids and play basketball,” Kelly said.

Michael Dibley, who has been a teacher at Redwood for 33 years, has coached the Unified Basketball games for the past three years. According to Dibley, the program is a great opportunity for the students to represent their schools.

“The idea is to get kids that wouldn’t otherwise maybe have the chance to represent our school in a Redwood uniform playing basketball,” Dibley said.

Senior Talia Fleischman has been working with the Special Ed program as a volunteer since the beginning of her junior year. Fleischman said that her favorite aspect of being in the program is the connections that she is able to create.

“[My favorite part is] seeing them succeed at things that they’ve been trying to for a long time. Either scoring a basket today or doing a difficult math problem or anything. The amount of joy they get from small victories reminds me how thankful I should be,” Fleischman said.

Redwood finished with a final record of 2-0 on Friday in the Unified basketball tournament, and will look to stay undefeated in their upcoming games in February.