VALVERDE HAS EAGLES ON A TEAR
Accomplishments: Spreading the wealth seems is one of the ingredients for the Elliot Christian High boys basketball team this season.
Part of the Eagles’ prosperity includes senior guard Jalen Valverde. At Brookside Christian on Jan. 6, Valverde was one of two Eagles who scored 20-plus points, with 24, to help Elliot (2-0 in the CCAA, 10-4) post a 76-56 win over the Knights, the defending CCAA champions who beat Elliot three times last year, including a Sac-Joaquin Section Division V semifinals last season. Eagles guard Jimmy Beltz was the other scorer with 21 points. Valverde also had seven rebounds and three steals.
The final eight minutes were critical for the Eagles, who led 58-49 before holding the Knights to only nine points to secure the win.
“In the fourth quarter, we didn’t give up,” Valverde said. “Coming into the game, we weren’t cocky. We just kept going hard.”
The win over Brookside was the first time an Elliot boys basketball team beat the Knights since February of 2012.
“It was just crazy,” said Valverde of how teammates and fans reacted after beating the Knights. “For me to be a part, and contribute, is crazy. We went in there knowing we were ready for this test.”
In recent games, Valverde has made his distributions of the ball. Against Venture Academy in the CCAA opener on Jan. 3, Valverde had a double-double with 18 points and 10 steals, plus eight assists, in a 73-23 win.
“I want to try to better our team,” Valverde said.
Valverde averaged only 5.5 rebounds per game last season. But his season, 6.7 per game. Valverde has had games he’s had 10 or more boards.
“More rebounds coming inside,” Valverde said.
Valverde is one of four Eagle players averaging double-digits in scoring with 15.4 points per game. Beltz leads Elliot at 20.1 points per game, followed by guards Nate Bond, 16.1 and Onkar Sidhu 11.
“We’re getting our hands out (for steals),” Valverde said.
This year’s Eagles are soaring because more players have stepped up on the court; from the starters to players coming off the bench.
“It goes more than just the four players scoring,” Valverde said. “We talk about it all the time. Everyone has to contribute more than last year; it’s not more of me or Jimmy. Now we have Nate and
Onkar, and guys likes (guard) Nick Figueroa, who’s hit some big shots for us. And our two big men in (forwards) Cody Doell and Spencer Sani. They have contributed a whole lot. We like to share the ball; we try to balance everything.”
Some of Elliot’s pre-season wins this season have come against schools twice its size — and bigger — in Jesuit, a member of the Delta League in the Sacramento area, and Marin Catholic of Kentfield, both coming at the Father Berry Tournament at Jesuit last month.
Other huge wins for Elliot
Christian have come against West, which is part of the TriCity Athletic League with Lodi and Tokay, Antelope and Elk Grove.
After the end of last season, the Eagles were looking for ways to fuel themselves for a better 2016-17 season. Last year, Elliot went 22-7, which included a 12-2 mark in the CCAA in which the only two losses were to Brookside. One of the Eagles’ weapons has been the VertiMax, a machine that improves an athletes’ abilities to build strength and speed.
“We worked on it all the time during the summer,” Valverde said. “Drills that have helped our vertical game, and has made us better.”
Many AAU basketball games at tournaments around the West Coast during the spring, summer and fall months, have also developed the Eagles into a better team that wants to have a deeper playoff run come February.
“Huge experience for everyone on our team,” Valverde said. “It has made us all tougher aware of playing those better.”
But the Eagles don’t want to put the cart before the horses. They want to win, at least, a share of the CCAA crown.
“We are expected to win,” Valverde said. “We are all confident.”