El Capitan blitzes Central Valley early in WAC basketball rout

With a gym less than half full of people, James Sellers felt a strange vibe before the start of Monday night’s basketball game.

The El Capitan High School junior didn’t know if it would affect how the Gauchos would play.

“It was a Monday game, and it’s something we’re not used to,” Sellers said. “I was concerned because we’re so used to playing Wednesday and Friday.”

The concerns quickly dissipated as the Gauchos delivered a heavy blow early against Central Valley, sprinting to a 15-0 lead and coasting to a 65-47 win at the Stable Center to improve to 15-5 overall and 6-0 in the Western Athletic Conference.

El Capitan helped force the Hawks (11-9, 4-2) into seven turnovers in the first five minutes.

“Give them all the credit. They started the game like a first-place team should,” Central Valley coach Darryl Dickson said. “They got out on our shooters, and (Sellers) hit a couple threes early for them. The biggest thing was the offensive rebounds they got. Our biggest guy is 6-foot-2, but there are things we can do fundamentally to get better.”

Jarod Latona and Sellers drained three-pointers early, and Marcos Dinkins’ putback gave El Capitan a 15-0 lead with 3:08 left in the first quarter.

Not only were the Hawks struggling to maintain possession, they also couldn’t make a shot.

After scouting Central Valley on Friday night against Ceres and watching the Hawks shoot from 25 feet and beyond, El Capitan coach Chris Tufts had his guards extend their 2-3 zone.

“We had our guards way out by the volleyball line,” Tufts said. “Central Valley is a guard-heavy team with good guards. We were trying to take a strength away.”

Central Valley first scored with 2:57 left in the first quarter on Erik Mejia’s free throw.

The Hawks got three-pointers from Harinder Sidhu and Jaspreet Singh but made just 2 of 10 shots and trailed 22-7 at the end of the quarter..

The Gauchos extended the lead to 42-16 at halftime.

“We all came in super confident,” said Sellers, who tied teammate Isaiah Knott with a game-high 15 points. “Starting on that (15-0) run felt great. We got out to a good pace, and we just kept it going.”

While Sellers, Knott and Latona (13 points) handled the scoring, teammate Joshua Stewart did most of the dirty work. Stewart grabbed eight rebounds, played great defense in the paint and delivered passes on backdoor cuts to set up teammates for baskets.

“He was huge for us,” Tufts said. “He rebounded, he boxed out, and he was just the big rock that he is. Offensively, he had some 15-foot shots that he passed on and hit some backdoor passes. He had an all-around great game for us.”

Central Valley settled down in the second half as Sidhu scored 10 of his team-high 13 points in the third quarter.

“We’re a little inexperienced,” Dickson said. “We start all juniors. We’re still getting used to the varsity speed, and El Capitan has some really quick guys. Knott is great with the ball. We had a better second half. Once we got used to the press and we were more aggressive, we did all right.”

The teams will play again Friday at Central Valley.

Monday’s game concluded the first half of WAC play with the Gauchos alone in first place with a two-game lead over Central Valley, Patterson and Ceres.

“We’re on top, but the mountain is crowded,” Tufts said. “Ceres played a heck of a game on Friday. Patterson is the most athletic team in the league. This will be the second time teams have seen us. Everyone is going to give us their best. We have to be ready.”

This story was originally published January 25, 2016 at 10:29 PM with the headline "El Capitan blitzes Central Valley early in WAC basketball rout."