Gallant Junior Knights avenge damsels’ humiliation
By Laura Guillen
After a humiliating defeat for the Cambridge Lady Knights junior varsity basketball team, the JV boys took up the task of evening their school’s honor by evening the won-loss account with the green-and-yellow low Eagles for the day. They did so, if just barely, by winning 24-21, and thus also preserving their undefeated season and first-place status. .
The Cambridge Boys got right on the job of recovering the school’s honor, scoring the first basket of the game on a shot by Santiago Hurtado. The Eagles big man, Luke Phillips, soon retaliated to make it 2-2. This back-and-forth pattern continued with the Knight gradually working an 8-4 lead by the end of the quarter.
The Eagles were left further behind as the second quarter proceeded, and the Knights brought up the quality of their game, responding to the rising pressure of the ever active instructions from their coach to speed up and press on. The Knights also maintained a full court press defense almost the entire game to wear down the absentee-plagued Eagles.
The Knights were also missing a key player in Percy Vidal, who reportedly hurt his back in Monday’s field events, where he won third place in the high jump, but the Knights still had ten players in uniform compared with six for the Eagles.
Knights Santiago Hurt ado and Masayoshi Ueno accounted for much of the scoring as the Knights took a 16-9 halftime lead.
However, neither team was shooting well. Storm clouds had moved in overhead and the game was being played in semi-darkness in the under-lit Cambridge gym. Cambridge may have set a League record – if such statistics were kept – for missed easy lay-ups and shots that bounced out off the inner rim of the basket.
At the beginning of the second half, bursts of heavy rain made some people present wonder if we would see another rare event such as last week’s varsity game between the Knights and International, which was shortened by a flash flood. But Cambridge officials had taken care to put up tarps on the threatened sides to prevent such flooding, and though some water managed to spray onto the court, it only caused a few slips for the players and the puddles were cleaned up by Cambridge Athletic Director Eduardo “Presi” de la Riva, who demonstrated he was a man of many talents.
Well into the third quarter, Knights seem to be getting tired despite their greater numbers, and the Eagles were gaining strength, cutting the Cambridge advantage to 18-14 at the end of the thirds quarter.
The pressure built up and the crowd supporting the Eagles, while unusually small, started to make to make some noise, as the teams matched baskets. With five minutes to go the score was tied 20-20 and the suspense intense.
The Knights constructed their winning advantage in the last five minutes, though the Eagles sought to seize every opportunity to even things up. Cambridge was ahead 24-20 with a minute remaining. An Eagle free throw cut the margin to 24-21, meaning the Eagles could tie things up with a three-pointer and manage to at least tie the score.
But the Cambridge defense stiffened, and the Eagles couldn’t get a clear shot at any distance in the closing seconds, leaving the score 24-21 at the final buzzer.
It was a well played game for both Knights and Eagles, giving both teams’ fans the satisfaction of a winning game for the day. Now we’ll have to see how the Varsity games turn out on Thursday as the two boys teams face their biggest challenge of the year. For the first time two the leading teams in the League will clash with their big centers – Cambridge’s Luis Mercado and Eagle Andre Larsen in this case – presumed to be present and healthy.
In the junior varsity game, Santiago Hurtado had 12 points, Masayoshi Ueno six, Nando Boller four, and Horacio Morales two.
For the Eagles, Micah Janzen had ten points, Luke Phillips seven, and Abraham Lopez four.
(Laura Guillen is a senior at Cambridge College and managing editor of the website for that school.)
Jaguars Take Down Griffins, 32-18
The Cooperative boys junior varsity basketball team jumped out to an early lead and held onto it -- sometimes narrowly -- to prevail against International 32-18 in a game played at the Cooperative gym Tuesday.
The Jaguars were up 8-0 at the end of the first period. International rallied in the second period and outscored the Jaguars in the second period, but Cooperative was still ahead, 14-11 at the halftime break.
The Jaguars then went on a rampage in the third period, scoring 13 points while holding the Griffins to a single basket. The two teams played even-steven in the final quarter, but the Jaguar victory was secure.
The Jaguars' Eduardo Ustarez led all scorers in the game with 14 points. Alejandro Lorna had eight. Rodrigo Chavez and Matias Belmonte each had two points. Raul Valle and Fernando Vicava had a point a piece.
For the Griffins, Christian Suarez had seven, Jaime Barrenechea four, Leronardo Melgar two, Liam Hanley two, Alfonso Justinano two. and Jesus Ojedo one.
