After defeating Bunker Hill Community College in a thrilling 61-7 conference championship game, Big Blue headed to their first-ever March Madness tournament. As the 16th seed, Gunga had his work cut out for him on the sidelines against the consensus first seed, the Duke Blue Devils. Cooper Flagg opened the scoring, throwing down a monstrous dunk over a similarly aged 19-year-old PG. Unfortunately, Big Blue could not keep up from behind the three-point line, as the Blue Devils shot an astounding 36/36 from beyond the arc. Students in the Den cheered ecstatically when true freshman John Doe hit a big free throw to cut the Duke lead to 87 at the half. Much to the dismay of the Andover community, Big Blue exited the tournament in an embarrassing fashion, suffering the largest defeat in tournament history, a 190-3 loss. Flagg notched a whopping 70 points in the first-ever sextuple-double performance in the NCAA. To make matters worse, Andover’s student manager, aptly nicknamed “Aura,” announced his plan to follow significantly more lucrative NIL deals at Exeter. Although it ended in an undesirable way, the 2025 basketball season demonstrated determination and perseverance. So much so that the Borden administration plans to hang a banner at center court commemorating such an impressive tournament appearance.
