Tri-Valley boys’ win: A study in numbers

I remember reading about the numerical coincidences connected with 9-11.  Things like the fact that New York City contains 11 letters; New York was the 11th state to enter the Union; George W. Bush contains 11 letters; the first airplane to strike the Twin Towers was flight 11; and etc.  

 And so it was that while gathering statistics for the Tri-Valley varsity boys’ game against Notus, I couldn’t help but notice some interesting numerical coincidences around the prime number 7, noted for its spiritual and physical significance beginning with the Biblical account of the creation.

 Starting off the recurring appearance of the number 7 was the date of the game, 12/12/18 itself.  When you add the numbers together they equal 42, a multiple of 7.  But as you will see, this was just the first inkling of the trend.

 To start the game the towering Pirates controlled the tip but couldn’t control the defense and scoring drives of the Titans.  Interestingly, the first quarter ended with the Titans boasting 14 points (a multiple of 7) to the Pirates 8 points.  

 The second quarter brought up a low-scoring defensive battle, assisted by Nathan Kindall who came in off the bench and pulled down some key rebounds. The Titans added their lucky 7 points to their score, while the Pirates added 9 points, making the halftime score 21 (a multiple of 7) for Tri-Valley to 17 for Notus.

 Throwing up the numbers in the third quarter was Ty Barnett who put up 10 of Tri-Valley’s 14 points (another multiple of 7) to outscore the Pirates 35 (another multiple of 7) to 29.  

 The magical number 7 continued to roll through into the fourth quarter as the Titans put up yet another 14 points (another multiple of 7) and continued to control the game to stomp Notus 49 (yes, another multiple of 7) to 38.

 “I appreciated our overall effort and team defense,” said Coach Morris.  “Notus put a lot of size on the floor, and I thought our boys had to earn everything.  We did a good job creating a fourth quarter lead and finishing the game.”

 Leading scorers were Orion Southwick with 13 points and Michael Barnett with 12 points. Interestingly, both of these boys have 14 letters in their name (another multiple of 7 coincidence). Leading in rebounds were Orion Southwick with the transcendent number of 7, with Nathan Kindall reining in 5. 

 After this little exercise of recognizing numbers, I can’t help but notice the coincidence of it all. The efforts of the boys created another successful win on the road.  I’m even inclined to believe that 7 really is the lucky number it claims to be.