‘Cats stomp Sidewinders
Willow Canyon 108 San Luis 14 WC: 1-0
SL: 0-1
It wasn’t a pretty start to the 2021 season for the San Luis boys basketball team on Monday.
The Sidewinders’ (0-1 AIA) roster is composed of first-year basketball players and one returning contributor from last year’s team.
The continuity, or lack thereof, was apparent in San Luis’ 108-14 loss to Willow Canyon (1-0).
“We’ve got a weird mix guys,” San Luis coach Marcus Weeks said. “We have
three or four freshman, guys playing basketball for the first time and we definitely played as hard as we could, but we haven’t been together that long.”
The game was over in the early minutes.
Willow Canyon used their full-court press and transition offense to race out to a 29-0 lead after the first quarter. The Wildcats’ length and athleticism caused havoc and created 45 turnovers in Monday’s victory.
“You could definitely tell we were a little rattled going up against the press,” Weeks said. “We haven’t run press breaks much, but I felt like when we slowed down and got under control we had some success. We just hit the panic button a little too much.”
San Luis didn’t record their first points until the second quarter when Robert Vasquez drilled a triple from the right wing. Vasquez scored nine of the Sidewinders’ 14 points.
In a game that displayed minimal positives for San Luis, Vasquez was a bright spot in the loss. He certainly showed he’s going to need to be the go-to-scorer for his club.
“He’s the only returner who got serious minutes last year,” Weeks said. “He’s our leader. We definitely play off of him... For being really our one workhorse, he did what he could. You could tell he was a little timid early, but he had a good second half.”
All 11 Wildcats registered a point Monday and six scored in double-figures. Junior guard Pike Tancil led the way with 21 points while Julian Taylor added 17.
Providing an outlet
Less than two weeks ago, it appeared the AIA’s winter sports season wasn’t going to be played and despite Monday’s lopsided loss, Weeks understands the significance of sports helping kids.
“It’s definitely important for kids,” he said. “(The kids) aren’t getting their social interactions in school or anything like that. It’s important for them to have an outlet. Basketball was always my outlet growing up. It’s important they get to play and we’re using all of the safety measures and precautions... It gives them an outlet in these weird times.”
Weeks’ message to his team in a year that almost didn’t happen is ‘to just have fun and enjoy every minute.’
Masks on
The AIA is mandating all student-athletes to wear cloth face masks during participation. In a hot gym and athletes running fullspeed up and down the court, the new rule affected several players Monday.
“Couple guys you could tell they were winded a little bit,” Weeks said. “You could definitely tell it’s going to be something we have to get used to...It’s definitely a learning process.”