The Armenia national basketball team made its way to Fresno City College (FCC) for an exhibition game against Costa Rica on June 6.

The highlight point of the game was to honor Jerry Tarkanian, a basketball player and coach of over 31 seasons. FCC collaborated with the Armenia team to host Fresno’s first-ever Tarkanian Classic.

Tarkanian’s son, Danny Tarkanian, shared a few words about what it meant to him to represent his father’s legacy at the Tarkanian Classic on Friday night.

“It was very touching and it was a great honor to have it named after my father because my father was so close to the Armenian community,” Tarkanian said. “The people that put it on did a great job.”

Tarkanian stated that if his father were still alive, he would have loved the event and would have had a great time.

Not only was it the first Tarkanian Classic in Fresno, but also Armenia Basketball’s first time visiting Fresno. Knights of Vartan representative and basketball fan, Vartan Gasparyan, shared what he thought about the team coming down to Fresno.

“I think it was their first time visiting Fresno, and it was a great turnout from the community…” Gasparyan said. “It was nice to have everybody together, and we had a great win.”

Pre-game feelings

Head Coach Rex Kalamian was feeling optimistic leading up to the game. Apart from minimal worry due to the uncertainty of the size of Costa Rica’s players in comparison to his players, Kalamian wasn’t letting anything stand in the way of a victory.

“For us, it’s always our shooting,” Kalamian said. “If we can make 3s, we’re gonna be in good shape…I’m a little worried because we’re not as big…We have three bigs and other than that, we’re kind of all average height.”

Kalamian said that his players were high in spirits with good attitudes after their first few practices and well-rested bodies post-traveling.

“I talk a lot about playing together, moving the basketball,” Kalamian said. “We’re not going to be a team that’s going to be selfish or come down and handle the ball in place and dribble, dribble, dribble. I prefer moving the basketball, spacing the floor and playing for each other.”

Gametime

Armenia Basketball had a rough start to the game at FCC. Even after missing several layups, a handful of 3-pointers, plus free throws, they did their best not to let Costa Rica score on them too much; however, they spent most of the first quarter trailing slightly behind.

“We fell down seven or eight points per lead in the game,” Kalamian said. “We weren’t shooting the ball very well, but we kind of hung in there.”

As the night went on, Armenia began to pick up its pace and show more of their talent and skills. The team started making shots more frequently and was able to maintain larger leads over Costa Rica as the game continued.

Team Captain Andre Spight-Mkrtchyan ended the game with a point total of 21 points, putting him as the top scorer. Artem Tavakalyan came in close at 18 points, followed by Connor Essegian at 15 and Anto Balian at 9 total points scored.

Spight-Mkrtchyan had 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal. Tavakalyan had 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Essegian had 3 rebounds and 2 assists and Balian had 5 rebounds and 2 assists.

Armenia Basketball finished off the night with a 24-point win over Costa Rica, bringing the final score to 86-62.

Post-game feelings

Essegian shared that the team had too many turnovers, missed a lot of free throws and needs to work on its defense and rebounding for future games. However, he is proud of his team’s ability to overcome obstacles and adversity while representing Armenia.

“It’s bigger than myself,” Essegian said. “I’m playing for a whole country across my chest and on my back. To be able to do that is a huge blessing, not a lot of people get the opportunity to do that.”

Essegian’s teammate, Spight-Mkrtchyan, agreed with his coach and his teammates that they did not play their best Friday night. Spight-Mkrtchyan appreciated the urgency Kalamian brought to the team throughout the game, raising his voice when needed, but getting the point across and more importantly, points on the scoreboard.

“At the end of the day we’re all basketball players, good basketball players,” Spight-Mkrtchyan said. “We’ve been yelled at, scolded at, so it’s nothing new for us and we knew we needed to correct our mistakes…It’s great that he did because it shows the urgency that we really need to play with.”

Spight-Mkrtchyan was proud of his teammates and the skills they were able to display at the game on Friday.

“My teammates, seeing them get an opportunity; some guys that haven’t stepped or put on an Armenian jersey before, make a shot, make a lay, get in the game, that’s what really made me proud,” Spight-Mkrtchyan said.

When asked to describe his team with one word, Kalamian shared a heartfelt response, connecting back to Armenia’s past, present and future.

“It’s a word that defines who Armenians are and that word is resilient,” Kalamian said. “I think we’re a resilient group, whether we’re down a lot or a little or we’re up, we continue to fight and we continue to play hard and we persevere.”

The Armenian team went on to play its second exhibition game against Costa Rica on Sunday at Crescenta Valley High School and came out with a 103-90 victory.

The team shared that its next milestone goal is to work to qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.