El Capitan boys lose WAC opener
It was easy to see what plagued the El Capitan High School boys basketball team in its Western Athletic Conference opener Friday night.
Poor free throw shooting, turnovers and second-chance points combined for a nightmare evening.
Central Valley took advantage of all three categories as it raced to 14-point lead at the half and cruised to a 71-54 win.
“We beat ourselves,” Gauchos coach Chris Tufts said. “The score didn’t show it. We did it in the first half. We made only 5 of 16 free throws. We missed three front ends of one-and-ones. We missed two or three layups and we gave up 15 points in the paint, mostly on second-chance points.”
El Capitan played even with Central Valley (7-3), which is the preseason favorite in the WAC, with the scored tied at 8-8 midway through the first quarter.
Then the Hawks took off, jumping out to a 25-12 lead with a 17-4 run that extended into the second quarter. Daevon Brown and Jaron Dickson each scored five points during the run for Central Valley.
By the end of the first half, El Capitan was staring at a 37-23 deficit.
The Gauchos’ numbers weren’t pretty.
El Capitan made just 7 of 22 from the floor and missed 11 of 16 free throws to go along with 14 turnovers.
“We have to make free throws and we have to box out,” El Capitan point guard Isaiah Knott said. “It’s frustrating because we work on those things every day in practice. We have to stay level-headed in games and try to get it right.”
The Hawks put the game out of reach early in the third quarter with a 13-0 run to start the second half that extended the lead to 50-23.
The Hawks led 64-30 with 6:43 left in the game.
“Central Valley is a great team with great senior leadership,” Tufts said. “We were able to win the fourth quarter. We asked them to try to win the third quarter, but that didn’t happen.”
Trailing by 34, the Gauchos did respond, outscoring Central Valley 24-7 in the final 6:26.
The Hawks’ starters even returned to the game with 1:59 left with the score cut to 65-45.
“We can’t quit at all, no matter what,” said Knott, who scored 10 points. “Even if we’re down big, we still have to be talking on defense. That’s where it starts.”
Joshua Stewart scored nine of his 12 points for El Capitan in the fourth quarter. Jarod Latona led the Gauchos in scoring with 19.
El Capitan even made 7 of 9 free throws in the final quarter to finish 15 of 30.
Daevon Brown paced five Central Valley players in double figures with 18 points.
Tufts feels the Gauchos will be able to compete in the WAC.
“We work hard,” Tufts said. “It’s a good basketball team and a fun group to coach. We have high hopes, and we’re going to work hard to push each other.”
Livingston 67, Ceres 58 in Livingston – The Wolves’ 1-2 punch of Gabe Deol (game-high 21 points) and Harman Singh (20) came up big as Livingston opened WAC play with a convincing victory over Ceres.
Blake Jantz added 11 points and CJ Avila finished with nine for Livingston (5-7, 1-0 WAC).
The Wolves led 30-20 at halftime.
Puneet Sahi led Ceres (6-7, 0-1 WAC) with 21 points, including three three-pointers.
Girls
Patterson 65, Los Banos 24 in Los Banos – Evelyn Johnson scored a team-high 11 points, but the rest of the Tigers (7-8, 0-1 WAC) could only muster 13 more in a WAC-opening rout by Patterson.
Ariyanna Cashen paced Patterson (9-3, 1-0) with 17 points and Danielle Jenkins chipped in 16.
Patterson led 44-19 at halftime.
This story was originally published January 3, 2015 at 12:33 AM with the headline "El Capitan boys lose WAC opener."