Los Banos can’t box in El Capitan offense in WAC basketball loss

The El Capitan High School boys basketball team provides a tough matchup in the Western Athletic Conference.

The Gauchos possess so much depth and versatility, it’s hard to take something away defensively and not leave another area exposed.

Los Banos became the latest team to learn that lesson Wednesday night. Coach Marcus McGraw’s squad came out focused on taking away sharpshooter James Sellers, implementing a box-and-one defense.

The ploy worked to some degree with Sellers going scoreless in the opening quarter. Unfortunately for the Tigers, Sellers’ teammates picked up the slack.

Isaiah Knott (game-high 18 points), Jarod Latona (12 points) and Mark Sellers (eight points) took advantage of the extra space, combining for five three-pointers in the first quarter as the Gauchos raced to a big lead. Chris Tufts’ squad pretty much went into cruise control from there, easing its way into Monday’s battle of Western Athletic Conference unbeatens against Central Valley with a 53-30 victory at Stable Center.

“They came out and tried to take James away, going with a box-and-one,” Tufts said. “We just had to make a couple quick adjustments to our offense. Jarod knocked down a couple threes, then Isaiah and Mark. We followed that up with some dribble penetration. We have the guys that make it very difficult to run gimmick defenses against us for long.”

Latona set the tone, scoring seven points in the opening quarter, including back-to-back threes. The senior said it was the kind of performance he needed coming off of a rough outing against Patterson.

Knott and Mark Sellers followed suit, accounting for El Capitan’s other 20 points as the Gauchos (14-5 , 5-0 WAC) sprinted to a 28-8 lead at the end of one.

“James is a leader and Isaiah is a leader, but the rest of us have to step up when other teams are taking them away,” Latona said. “When some of us other guys knock down some shots early, it lifts up everyone’s confidence. I was fortunate enough to make a couple threes to get myself going.

“I needed a tremendous game, because I felt like I’d been struggling.”

To Los Banos’ credit, it didn’t fold. McGraw received a boost of defensive energy from Adam Herrera and Anthony Machado off the bench. The pair, along with David Walker, used their athleticism and quickness to muck things up for the El Capitan offense.

Muck things up they did, as the second quarter turned into an undisciplined track meet. Turnovers and poor finishing became the norm as neither team could execute at the breakneck pace.

“We called a timeout about 2 1/2 minutes into the second quarter to point out that we scored 28 in the opening eight minutes and had one point to show for the first two plus to start the second,” Tufts said. “It was ugly, but you have to give Los Banos credit. They played hard and got us out of what we were doing well.

“Fortunately, our defense did enough that it wasn’t really an issue.”

El Cap pushed its lead to 35-12 at halftime and put away the game early in the third quarter, allowing Tufts to empty his bench and rest his starters for most of the second half.

Los Banos (6-9, 1-3 WAC) never threatened to get back in it. Andy Rios led the Tigers with seven points off the bench in the second half, and Cameryn Gomez scored six.

This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 11:14 PM with the headline "Los Banos can’t box in El Capitan offense in WAC basketball loss."