It was a good first half, a sizzing halftime show and a fizzle
of a third quarter for the Anzar High boys cagers Friday night.
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA – It was a good first half, a sizzing halftime show and a fizzle of a third quarter for the Anzar High boys cagers Friday night.
The Hawks were downed in mid-air by visiting Carmel 73-50 in the Mission Trail Athletic League opener for both teams.
The game’s tipoff was moved up from 7 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., but actually started about 5 p.m. due to the tardiness of a preliminary junior varsity game. That meant about 100 people shunned any television viewing of the national championship football game between Ohio State and Miami to watch the Hawks and Padres go at it tooth-and-sometimes-nail.
The game got testy late in the first half when a frustrated Padres player shoved the Hawks’ Jordan Monroe against the bleachers on a loose-ball situation and was assessed a technical foul.
It would not have been a surprise if more than a few Padres players wanted to see Monroe in the stands rather than on the floor. The smooth-shooting sophomore had blitzed the Pads (2-8, 1-0) for 16 points in the second period as Anzar (3-8, 0-1) had forged to a 34-31 lead after two periods.
Then came the halftime show, which had all the earmarks of a low-budget Orange Bowl fest.
The Hawks’ cheerleaders brought out about 50 prospective little cheerleaders who whooped it up, complete with a show-stopping dance number. After the break, the youths and their moms cleared out of the Hawks’ gym.
So did the energy Anzar used to lead by three at the intermission.
The Padres took off their press to start the quarter, which meant no more easy press-break buckets for the Hawks. The result was an 18-0 run by Carmel in the frame’s first three minutes. Daniel Serrano’s two free throws with 3:55 showing on the clock officially stopped the run.
“That’s been our problem,” said Hawks coach Claire Dietz, who had a ‘T’ slapped on him for beefing a non-call during the Hawks’ demise. “We don’t come out with the same intensity in the second half as we do in the first.”
It also didn’t help that the ball never once found Monroe’s hands after his torrid second period.
“I don’t know what happened,” said Monroe, who didn’t score in the second half. “We were trying to run screens on top and no one could get me the ball. Basketball’s a team game.”
Dietz, and Monroe and his mates, can be excused, somewhat. They started the game with six players as starting point guard Jesus Perez was still in Mexico. He is expected to return by next Thursday’s home game with Gonzales. That meant Serrano had to move to the point and gave Dietz one less man to rotate in in case of foul problems or fatigue.
Serrano, who played the point two years ago, actually did a fairly good job, tossing passes all over the court to Hawk players. He even worked his way to the line in the second half and hit 10 of 13 free throws.
“Daniel did a good job,” said Dietz. “He doesn’t want to play point, but he knows we needed him to to it.”
The Padres, meanwhile, used their long bench like a revolving door, which helped lead to the Hawks’ attrition. First, Serrano fouled out with 2:19 left. Then Chas Armour joined him with his fifth foul with 1:53 remaining.
Armour was waved onto the court by Dietz because that meant the Hawks would have only four on the floor if Armour was to sit down. He got away with another 28 seconds of playing time until a Padres’ spy at the scorer’s table decided it wasn’t kosher.
Besides lack of depth, the Hawks were hurt by the Padres 6-foot-5 sophomore Kyle Kretchmer, who is a rather large 6-5. Kretchmer, camping himself firmly in the lane for a multitude of seconds, had 10 field goals for a game-high 20 points.
Hawks sophomore center Cheyenne Monde, at 6-2, couldn’t match up with Kretchmer on the defensive end. Offensively, however, Monde was the beneficiary of the last man on the press and responded with 16 points, eight in the first period. That meant, counting Sam Stewart’s three points, 35 of the Hawks’ 50 points came from the hands of sophomores, giving them hope for the future.
“I wanted to press because of our depth,” said Padres coach Hans Schmidt. “But, we didn’t do a good job of competing in the first half, so I took it off. We try to compete on every possession. That’s our goal. We did a better job in the second half.”
Hawk shots: Neither team lit it up from outside. The Padres were 0-12 from three-point territory, while the Hawks were 0-7. – Anzar won the turnover battle with 17 to the Padres’ 20. – Fifty-eight combined free throws were attempted as the officials were in constant battle to take control of the rag-tag game.
JV score: Carmel 58, Anzar 28.
Carmel 14 17 22 20 – 73
Anzar 12 22 7 9 – 50
C – Terui 0 2-2 2, Johnston 3 4-6 10, Moran 5 2-3 12, Kretchmer 10 0-2 20, Canepe 4 0-1 8, Menke 1 0-0 2, Conway 0 2-2 2, Dorey 4 4-8 12, Zirhan 0 5-8 5. Totals 27 19-32 73.
A – Armour 1 2-4 4, Monroe 7 2-3 16, Monde 8 0-0 16, Serrano 0 10-13 10, Stewart 1 1-2 3, D’Amore 0 1-4 1. Totals 17 16-26 50.
3-point goals: None
