Knights win odd, topsy-turvy game
By Trevor Reed
Christian Learning Center
and David Boldt
SCISL News
The Christian Learning boys varsity basketball team was given its first defeat of the season by Cambridge, the only other undefeated team in the boys league.
The Knights prevailed 27-22 in a game played Thursday in the Eagles gym that was far from the high-scoring contest many fans had anticipated.
To be sure, the game started as if it were going to be a fast-paced shoot-out, as Knight Juan Manuel Salas stole an Eagle pass in the first five seconds, and took it to the basket for an easy lay-up.
However, as the game went on it began to look as if, in terms of scoring, that basket might be it for the afternoon.
Neither team scored again until the last minute of the first quarter when Eagle Paul Estes hit a free throw, cutting the Cambridge lead to one point, 2-1. Two more points were recorded in the first quarter when Eagle David Lotz sank two more free throws, but he shot these after playing time had expired. They put Christian Learning on top 3-2.
Too much adrenalin?
Why so little scoring? Both teams played torrid defense, but it also seemed as if both squads had been struck by a massive case of what is called "Super Bowl-itis," meaning the tendency of teams to play poorly in high stakes games. Supposedly there is just a little bit too much adrenalin pumping through the playees' veins throwing the delicate mechanisms of passing and shooting slightly out of kilter.
In the beginning of the second quarter, the Eagles built their lead to 8-2 before Cambridge seventh grade phenom Jose Ribera swished a three-point shot that made the score 8-5. Each team made one more basket before the intermission, bringing the score 10-5 Christian Learning at the half.
The ironic thing about the game was that Cambridge appeared to have undergone a personality change. Totally absent was the fast-breaking, dribbling behind the back, crashing through the back door style of play that had chacterized them all year.
Playing the Eagles game?
Cambridge instead played slowly, passing the ball around the perimeter as if waiting for something to happen that never quite occurred, then finally launching a long shot that usually missed, and that Christian Learning usually rebounded.
In other words they played the kind of game that should have advantaged the slower but bigger Eagles.
And throughout the first half it did. One wondered what Cambridge's fiery but supposedly brilliant coach, Victor Coronado, could be thinking of. It was almost like watching a team commit ritual suicide as Christian Learning steadily moved ahead.
The tide turns
But that woukld change in the second half, and Coronado would look like a genius again.
At the very beginning of the second half, Eagle Josh Mann sank two free throws, which further lengthening his team's lead to 12-5. But then a string of baskets by Cambridge changed the flow of the game, as the Knights pulled ahead and opened a three-point lead, 17-14.
The key factor was two more amazing three-point shots by Ribera, who perhaps was too young to have Big Game Jitters. Inspired by the youngster's heroics, the Knights seemed to pull themselves together and start making things happen.
Stepping up
If the big guns weren't firing, the little guns opened up. Two players who had not been major contributors to past Cambridge victories stepped up and made their presence felt. Senior forward Yosep Song hit a pair of jumpers.
Tenth grader Tae Han Kook, who hadn't played organized basketball before this year, connected for four points.
Salas, heretofore the team's high scorer, was having a day from hell after his opening basket, and was benched for most of the second half.
Christian Learning, meanwhile, was having just an awful time getting the ball into the hoop. Their rebounding advantage was as big as advertised, and they were able to fire up shot after shot -- almost all of them off the mark.
The Eagles' best shooter, Paul Estes, posted two field goals in the second half, and had five points for the game, but that was way off his double-digit average. And no one else was filling the gap. Cambridge lead 21-16 at the end of the third quarter.
A brief rally
Christian Learning seemed to be on the verge of rallying in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter as Estes and Jeff Stabler scored buckets for the Eagles and cut the Cambridge lead to a second point.
But Cambridge rallied. Young Ribera sank another long set shot (but only a two-pointer this time), and senior Benjamin Ezpeleta, the team leader, knocked down two free throws.
With about five minutes to go the Knights had their five-point advantage back, and Coack Coronado decided to sit on it.
The Knights went into ball control mode, playing a cunning keep away game that increasingly frustrated the Eagles.The necessary deliberate fouls brought Ezpeleta to the foul line two more times, and he added two points to the Knight lead.
The Eagles got the ball several more times, but their rushed shots failed to connect until in the closing seconds Stabler sank a third (or perhaps fourth) close-range try to give the Eagles their final points.
One more time (at least)
Cambridge is now 4-0 and Christian Learning 3-1, but it all goes on the line again in two weeks when the two teams play at Cambridge. After that, of course, there's the playoffs.
Ribera led all scorers with 11 points. Interestingly, that was the same total he had Tuesday in the junior varsity game. Ezpeleta scored six for the Knights, Kook and Song had four each, and Salas 2.
For the Eagles, David Lotz had 7, Estes 5, Josh Mann 4, Stabler 4, and Kyle Swope 2.
TWO ON ONE -- Knight Benjamin Ezpeleta looks for a way past Eagles Kyle Swope and Paul Estes (8). -- Juan Carlos Coronel, Cambridge
Cooperative 42, International 41
Jaguars sneak by Griffins in overtime
The Cooperative boys varsity basketball team just barely eked out a victory in overtime over a resurgent International, 42-41, in a game played at the Jaguar gym Thursday. .JPG)
The suprising Griffins, who demonstrated that the scare they gave undefeated Cambridge just before the Easter break was no fluke, jumped out to a 12-7 lead in the first quarter, and were ahead at the half 22-17.
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WHERE THERE'S A WILL -- Griffin Mario Rohrman looks for a way to get a shot off against Jaguar Juan Peredo. Jonatan Muñoz, International
The Jaguars closed the gap to three points at the end of the third quarter, 30-27, and managed to tie the game 38-38 as regulation time expired on a basket by Juan Peredo. International coach Eduardo "Presi" de la Riva argued strenuously that the clock should have expired before the basket was scored, but was incorrectly stopped during the final nine seconds of regulation time.
In the overtime the Jaguars got a basket by Daniel Linggi, together with two free throws by Juan Abuawad. The Griffins had a three-pointer by Martin Gonzales.
The victory gives the Jaguars two wins -- both against the Griffins -- and three defeats. The Griffins are now 0-5. The Jaguars play Cambridge next week, and Cambridge had best not be looking past that game to its final game with Christian Learning.
The Chrtistian Learning-International game originally scheduled for next week, has been postponed because the Eagle seniors will be on their class trip, and could provide an intersting climax to those teams´seasons. For the winning Jaguars, Juan Peredo hit for a season-high 19 points. Juan Abuawad had 11, Daniel Linggi 8, Diego Morales 2, and Pablo Taborga 2.
For the Griffins, Martin Gonzales scored 17, Mario Rohrman and David Huang had eight each, Ernando Tesch had 4, and Martin Fernandez 2.
