Renegade men’s team cruises past LA Pierce
Basketball teams are more often than not a reflection of their coach. That’s certainly the case with the Bakersfield College men’s team this year.
The Renegades once again took on the aggressive, hard-nosed, persona of their bench leader Aaron Chavez on Saturday afternoon.
Chavez, a tough, defensive-minded coach, saw his BC squad hold L.A. Pierce to a paltry 16-point first half before cruising to a 67-46 victory at the Gil Bishop Sports Center.
“Our defense is what’s going to hold us this year,” Chavez said. “I’m a defensive-oriented coach. That’s what I like. I like defense. I like to grind it out. We have to finish better. Sixteen turnovers is too much for us. And we had a lot of fouls in the first half. But we find a way to win. And that’s the biggest thing.”
Tyler Silva scored a game-high 20 points on
6 of 10 shooting, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range, and grabbed eight rebounds as the Renegades won for the seventh time in eight games.
Leading 29-16 at halftime, the sophomore point guard knocked down a pair of 3-pointers early in the second half to fuel a 10-0 BC run that was capped off by a thunderous fast break dunk by Elijah Williams.
“The last six games Tyler has really turned it on,” Chavez said. “I really challenged him in the office and said, ‘hey man, you’re 60 days away from being a junior in college and you gotta pick it up.’” He’s been really good. He’s had a great attitude and been a good team player so I’m really happy for Tyler.”
The Renegades (8-4) led by as many as 28 points in the second half.
Struggling to get open shots against BC’s aggressive man-to-man defense, the Brahmas (4-9) shot just 24.6-percent from the field. The Renegades made 48.1-percent of their attempts from the floor.
BC outrebounded Pierce 47-38.
“We’re built on (defense), (defense),
(defense), defend, defend, defend, one-on-one defend, close it out and hunt” Chavez said. “We call rebounding hunting. You’ve got to hunt. You gotta end the possession.”
GD Deng had a teamhigh 16 points for Pierce, which never led.
The super-athletic Williams finished with 12 points and seven
rebounds.
Earlier in the day, the Bakersfield College women’s team lost, 57-43, to visiting Imperial Valley.
The Renegades struggled with their shooting all game, but especially in the first half, which helped the Desert Warriors pull out to a 28-11 advantage at the intermission.
A better shooting effort in the third quarter allowed BC to cut the deficit to 11 points heading
to the fourth quarter, but the Renegades failed to mount a serious challenge during the game’s final 10 minutes.
Zoila Marquez led BC in scoring with 12 points. Jasmine Martinez added 11 and Sydni Morris chipped in 9 points and 10 rebounds for BC, which lost for a third straight time.
Orian Anderson had 19 points and Cecilia Costa scored 17 points for Imperial Valley.