SALIDA— After proving itself to be the big fish in the Tracy Winter Holiday Classic pond a week ago, the Weston Ranch High boys basketball team was tossed into an ocean of starving sharks Wednesday.
Of the 16 teams competing in this year’s Modesto Christian Holiday Hoop Classic, 10 finished in first place of their respective leagues a season ago. The tournament field, which includes squads hailing from Oakland all the way to Compton, turned in a combined 2005 record of 321-115.First up for Weston Ranch was San Leandro, which came into the game ranked 20th in the state by Cal Hi Sports and eigth in Northern California by NorCalPreps.com.
The story of the game came midway through the first quarter, when San Leandro’s sophomore sensation Shaheed Young stole the ball away from Mic’ael Thomas and stormed to the bucket, igniting a four-minute, 10-0 run that the Cougars would never recover from in their 76-61 loss.
“I don’t know why, but we seemed to be a little intimidated by them.” Cougars head coach Bill Slikker said. “They were good. They had size. They were athletic, but I think we could have been more agressive.”
Walter Jackson’s jumper with five seconds remaining ended the Pirates’ first-quarter spurt and pulled the Cougars to within eight at 20-12, but as time expired, San Leandro’s John Howell heaved the ball from halfcourt and sank a dagger that tip-toed along the cylinder before dropping in for three.
Weston Ranch exchanged buckets with the Pirates for the remaining three quarters, but failed to mount a run of its own that would allow it back into the game.James Nunnally led the Cougars with 20 points and collected eight boards but was constantly harassed by the Pirates’ swarming press defense. San Leandro rarely allowed the Cougars’ scoring leader to touch the ball without two defenders in his face.
The same could be said for Jackson, who managed to stand out despite being picked on all game long. Jackson finsished with 19 points, 13 rebounds and 5 blocks.The Cougars one-two punch managed to pull out its usual SportsCenter moment with time running down in the fourth, Nunnally threw up a lob from mid-court that Jackson pulled down from the rafters for a show-stopping throwdown.
But it was too little, too late for a team that was beaten by a phenominal defensive effort by its opponent.Leading San Leandro’s high-pressure blockade was Young and Kareem Nitoto, who managed 10 steals apiece.“Both of them (Young and Nitoto) are as good on-ball defenders as you’re going to find at the high school level.” San Leandro head coach Todd Petersen said. “Every game we’ve won this year has been because of our defensive pressure. We’re not a particularly strong shooting team, so we have to create opportunities with our defense.”And create opportunities they did.All told, the Pirates pick-pocketed the Cougars 27 times and never allowed Weston Ranch to find its offensive identity.“We needed to take the ball at them more.” Slikker said. “Whenever we did take the ball to the basket good things happened, but the times we did that were few and far between.Hopefully we can correct that (today).”The Cougars will get their shot at redemption today at 1 p.m. when they face the loser of the Poly-Centennial match-up.
http://www.mantecabulletin.com/articles/2006/12/28/sports/sports4.txt
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