Eagles tip off ‘Classic’ with win

IMPERIAL — The 2016 Tiger Classic tipped off on Monday afternoon with Southwest High taking on Valley Center here in the first game of the six-day tournament.

The matchup was also the first of the season for the Eagles, who lost four players from last year’s team to graduation.

While the Eagles lost a handful of athletes, they returned a solid group of young and eager players, who helped lead the team to a 59-52 victory over the Jaguars.

“For the first game of the season, I though we did well,” said Eagle head coach Ruben Valenzuela. “We only practiced with a full team for about a week, since some of the boys were still playing football. We still have a lot to work on and we won’t have time to address some of the mistakes since we play tomorrow, but I think as long as we continue to work hard we’ll be able to keep this rolling.”

A total of five players were still playing as part of the Eagle football team just a few weeks ago and appeared to have a smooth transition from the gridiron to the court despite the relatively short practice time.

As the final score indicates, the game was close from start to finish with the teams playing to a 15-15 tie at the end of the first quarter.

A couple of buckets in the second quarter and tougher defense gave Valley Center a slight lead over the Eagles with just over 5 minutes left before the half, yet a series of points and free throws from Southwest’s Tyler Saikhon gave the local team a 26-24 advantage at the half.

“I think this year our communication on the court is much better and that was something we noticed right away,” Valenzuela said.

Following the half, the Eagles continued to build on their lead over the Jaguars, with help from Grant Hansink and Nathan McFadden.

The two combined to help push Southwest to a 32-26 lead with 5 minutes, 20 seconds left in the third quarter.

By the end of the third quarter, the Eagles’ defense caused the Jaguars to commit mistakes, which Southwest capitalized on and used to take a 40-36 lead at the starts of the fourth quarter.

Hansink continued to play well for the Eagles alongside Ryan Silva-Bradley, who worked to give the Eagles a 4838 lead, forcing a Valley Center timeout.

The Jaguars used the break in the action to regroup and challenged the Eagles for the remainder of the game, yet came up short, giving Southwest the season-opening victory.

Saikhon led the Eagles with 17 points, followed by Silva-Bradley with 13, Hansink with 11 and McFadden with 10.

Hansink led the team in rebounds with 10 and steals with four, followed by Saikhon with seven rebounds and four assists,

The Eagles return to action at 5:30 p.m. today taking on West Shores at Imperial High.