El Capitan boys all business in earning share of WAC basketball title

The Gaucho faithful didn’t storm the Stable Center court.

El Capitan High School athletic director Lou Souza didn’t make an announcement from the scorer’s table. Heck, the boys basketball players barely cracked a smile during the postgame handshake with Pacheco.

Earning a share of the first Western Athletic Conference boys basketball title in school history with a 67-41 victory over the visiting Panthers happened with little to no fanfare Wednesday night. It was a somewhat appropriate follow to the business-like manner in which El Capitan dismantled Pacheco.

Applying unrelenting pressure in their fullcourt press and 2-3 zone, the Gauchos raced to an 18-0 lead after one and never looked back. El Cap scored the first 22 points and didn’t yield a basket until a Travis Willmott jumper fell with 6:42 to play in the half. Even with rotating his bench freely, Chris Tufts’ squad didn’t allow the Panthers back within 20 points the rest of the way.

The win gave El Capitan a share of the WAC crown. The Gauchos can win it outright with a victory at Los Banos on Monday.

“You never know what you’re going to get on senior night,” Tufts said. “But we showed that we came out ready to play and more importantly were enjoying the game. I think our passing tonight was pretty close to perfect in terms of our unselfishness.

“I wish we had come out with that kind of energy against Patterson, but that game is behind us and the guys know they can only control what’s in front of them. I think that loss helped us get refocused. We’re happy to get a share of the title, but we want it all to ourselves and there’s one more game to get that done.”

Six Gauchos found their way into the scorebook in the opening quarter as El Capitan (19-6, 10-1 WAC) turned numerous Pacheco turnovers into easy transition buckets. Jarod Latona scored six points and Isaiah Knott had four of his team-high 13 in the first quarter.

Latona rolling his ankle and exiting the game was about all that went wrong for El Capitan in the first.

“They just play a very good brand of basketball, and it’s tough for us to compete with their athletes,” Pacheco coach Tyrell Jenkins said. “We really struggle against teams that press us man-to-man, but they tore us up with their zone, too.

“El Cap was all over the court, especially in that first quarter. They play the way we’re eventually hoping to with our program.”

It was more of the same in the second quarter with the Gauchos scoring at will. After sitting the first 11 1/2 minutes, James Sellers came in firing. He drilled two quick threes and scored eight of his 11 points in the second quarter to help make it a 40-14 score at the half.

With the game out of hand, the Panthers (6-18, 0-10) played a little looser in the second half. Pacheco attacked the basket and was rewarded with big second halves by Willmott (team-high 13 points), Jonathan Toscano (11 points) and Chris Munoz (nine).

Still, the improved offensive play hardly made a dent.

Eight Gauchos had at least five points in the game with Knott, Sellers, Marcos Dinkins (11 points) and Marcellus Jones (11) finishing in double digits.

“Somebody had to pay after the loss to Patterson,” forward Joshua Stewart said. “It was a game that we know we should have won. With tonight being senior night, we just wanted to come out and put on a show for our fans. Everybody got involved. We moved the ball around, and we had fun.”

This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 10:43 PM with the headline "El Capitan boys all business in earning share of WAC basketball title."