Patterson denies El Capitan WAC basketball title for now

Chris Tufts admitted his El Capitan High School boys basketball team has struggled against complacency the last couple weeks.

It’s understandable. The Gauchos are in uncharted territory, having entered Friday night’s trip to Patterson with a perfect Western Athletic Conference record and sitting atop the standings for the first time in the program’s young history. Even Tufts has never held the reigns for a varsity team in first place this late into a season.

Still, he held out hope an opportunity to lock up the team’s first outright boys basketball title would be enough to snap El Capitan out of its funk. Those hopes weren’t realized as a hungrier, more aggressive Patterson squad built a double-digit lead at halftime and never allowed the Gauchos back into a 60-43 victory.

The loss left El Capitan (18-6, 9-1 WAC) one game ahead of the Tigers (18-7, 8-2) with two games to play. A win over Pacheco on Wednesday would give the Gauchos at least a share of the title. A victory at Los Banos on the final day of the season would give them the title outright.

“I felt like we played a little timid,” Tufts said. “We knew we were in for a tough contest, especially after beating them at our place. But maybe the weight of being 9-0 and the kids never being in this position before caught up with us a little tonight.

“I felt like if we could come out and match their intensity that we would have a chance. We never did.”

The finish was all the more disappointing because it wasn’t a bad start for the Gauchos. El Capitan went point for point with the Tigers in the opening quarter with James Sellers (10 points) scoring five quick points and Isaiah Knott (nine points) six.

Patterson closed the first quarter with a little 3-0 run as Kosi Ogbuli hit one of two free throws and Larenz Johnson followed the miss with a putback to make it 19-16.

It seemed to be all the Tigers needed to get going. Patterson’s athleticism took over in the second quarter, forcing five turnovers that led to easy transition buckets. The Tigers also cheated a man up the court on El Cap missed shots to create fast-break opportunities.

The Gauchos were slow to react defensively in both scenarios, and Patterson led 34-22 at halftime.

“I feel like we got comfortable in that second quarter, and they saw it,” Knott said. “They became much more aggressive and fed off of their crowd’s energy. Once they got the momentum, we never got it back.”

El Capitan regrouped and had much better offensive production in the third quarter. Jarod Latona (team-high 11 points) started finding space inside and scored six quick points. The Gauchos just couldn’t get enough stops to make a dent in the lead.

Spirit Ricks was the main reason. Patterson’s 6-foot-7 center had his way inside, scoring 13 of his game-high 23 points after the break while going a perfect 6 for 6 from the field.

“We just kept trading baskets,” Tufts said. “We reviewed film and told the guys to watch for that backside cutter, and it just killed us all night. Even when we did get a stop, we’d either turn it back over or get it in the right guys’ hands and have the shot not got down.

“The good news is we’re still in first place. We have two more games to finish this off, and hopefully, we come back focused on doing that.”

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 11:49 PM with the headline "Patterson denies El Capitan WAC basketball title for now."