Sellers fights way out of slump for El Capitan boys

James Sellers hasn’t been passive with his shooting slump.

Instead of waiting for things to naturally resolve themselves, the El Capitan sharpshooter spent a couple extra hours with head coach Chris Tufts after practice on Wednesday night, letting hundreds of shots fly.

The extra work seemed to pay dividends early on Thursday night as Sellers raced out to 11 quick points. The second and third quarters were very different, however, as the junior’s struggles returned. Sellers kept firing and delivered in the clutch, nailing three fourth-quarter 3s as the Gauchos rallied for a 58-56 victory over Roosevelt on the opening night of the ABC Tournament.

“Coach Tufts was kind enough to give up some of his time with me last night and I put up hundreds and hundreds of shots,” Sellers said. “I’ve really struggled the last few games, but my teammates haven’t lost faith in me. They’ve kept feeding me balls. It felt good to reward them by knocking some down early.

“The middle quarters they really clamped down of me defensively and I lost my rhythm a little bit. Towards the end of the third quarter they went back to zone and that’s when I got going again.”

The two-time defending tournament champs held a 44-36 lead going to the fourth quarter.

Sellers, who finished with a game-high 22 points, quickly changed that by hitting a running jumper over Roosevelt 6-foot-8 big man Bryson Williams that trimmed the lead to 47-43 with just over five minutes to play. It seemed to get Sellers going as he quickly knocked down three 3s to pull the Gauchos (6-2) within one with just under three minutes to play.

The Rough Riders (1-1) could do little to stem the tide.

Williams (team-high 20 points, 12 rebounds) had gutted the undersized El Cap interior for much of the game, but suddenly found himself struggling to get open when it mattered most against the tandem or Joshua Stewart and Reno Bandoni.

Roosevelt compounded its offensive woes with eight fourth-quarter turnovers.

Isaiah Knott (16 points) put El Capitan in front with a tremendous drive and finish over Williams with 2:32 to play. The Gauchos would never trail again.

“Being an undersized guard, that’s what you have to do,” Knott said. “You have to go right at the big man and finish when you get a chance. It was definitely one of those moments that I think helped finish them off.

“All offseason this is the kind of game we prepared for. To go in and show we can be physical against a team with that much size on us is huge for our team.”

Even with the Knott dagger, the Rough Riders refused to go quietly.

A Stephen Perry 3 with 1:10 to go got Roosevelt right back in it, cutting EC’s lead to 57-56. The Rough Riders had two chances in the final 10 seconds to take the lead. Marcellus Jones came up with a huge steal, but Knott could only hit 1 of 2 free throws. Perry got a good look at a 3 as time expired, but his shot fell well short.

“We finally faced one of our demons this game,” Tufts said. “A couple times teams have been able to flip that switch on us in the fourth quarter and blow past us. I thought it was over we had so little energy coming out of the half, but the guys flipped that switch tonight.

“I told the kids after the game that this is our program’s signature win to this point. We showed we can play with some of these Division I and Division II schools and hopefully we carry that momentum forward.”

Jarod Latona finished with nine points and seven rebounds in the victory. Lance Adams had 12 points and six rebounds for Roosevelt.

Atwater 60, Escalon 46 – Chewy Garcia hit five of the Falcons’ seven 3-pointers en route to 17 points in a win over Escalon.

Reggie Ricks turned in a game-high 20 points and Kyle Anaya added 10 for Atwater (3-3).

Buhach Colony 70, Livingston 47 – Pardeep Dhillon scored eight of his team-high 12 points in a decisive third quarter as the Thunder (2-3) blew out the Wolves (4-3).

Josh Penrod had a game-high 18 points in the Livingston loss.

This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 11:47 PM with the headline "Sellers fights way out of slump for El Capitan boys."