Nothing went into the basket for the Alhambra Bulldogs this
night as the Miramonte Matadors took an easy victory in their first league
game.
Alhambra
came into league play (4-8) while the Miradors came in (6-6).
With starters Payam Vadi and Davis Louie not starting due to
practice issues, and starter Troy Akin out with a sprained ankle, it looked
like this game was going to start off slow.
But with the help from Spencer Mcdonald, Nick Mora, and Chris Hatfield
the Mats started the night off fast with a quick 15-3 lead.
That was the shortest lead the Mats held over the Bulldogs
all night as Louie and Vadi entered the game and all five starters were playing
together. With strong defense and
distribution of the basketball, the Mats ended the first quarter with a 22-5
lead.
With more missed shots from the Bulldogs and the clean and
almost flawless play of the Mats, the first half ended with a score of
45-14. Chris Hatfield ended the half
with 16 points with Davis Louie putting up a solid 8 to complement him.
Coming out of the half it looked like the Mats couldn’t make
it any worse for the Bulldogs, but with strong defense and rebounding the Mats
just couldn’t stop scoring. They ended
the third quarter with a lead of 58-24 but not without something going
wrong. Co-Captain Spencer McDonald went
down in the end of the third with a knee-to-knee collision with an Alhambra player and was
taken to the team room. He did come back
out on his own power but never returned to the game.
With most of the starters sitting and the bench players
getting some solid minutes in the fourth, the Mats manhandled the
Bulldogs. Impressive performances off
the bench from Jack Pietrykowski, Anthony Piganelli, and Ross Anderson gave the
Mats the biggest lead they had that night with a 42 point difference between
the two teams.
“Our practices have been really good lately especially when we
have been working on defense,” said Senior Troy Akin. “I think that’s why we were able to keep
getting the ball back and scoring points.”
The Mats won 69-33.
Captain Chris Hatfield ended the game with a double-double putting up 21
points and getting 10 rebounds.
Sophomore Ross Anderson ended the game with 13 points and Davis Louie
had 8 points and 3 assists. The Mats had
a total of 21 steals and had a solid rebounding game.
“Rebounds on both
ends won this game for us. Alhambra is a
big and physical team, and getting the rebounds is what really did it for us,”
said Mats coach Dave Brown.
For Alhambra
the key players were Sophomore Keith Wilson with 10 points, Captain Zach
Coniglio with 8 points, and Senior Omar Omilabu with 8 points.
The Mats will face Dougherty Valley
at home this Friday and will be playing rival Campolindo at home the following
Tuesday. The Bulldogs are heading to
Mira Lomas for an out of league game this Friday and will continue league play
next Tuesday against Los Lomas.
