SOUTH SAN INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT IN SAN ANTONIO, TX 

Thursday 11/21 SHS vs. SA Jefferson

The first game of the tournament was a great game for the Spartans against a tough opponent that competed very hard. In the first quarter, we were down by up to 10 points after scoring only 12 points. In the 2nd quarter, we turned up the intensity significantly, started pressing full court, and created key turnovers. Vasili Fikaris and CJ Williams created early turnovers in the quarter to start our comeback. Joaquin Andrews scored 8 quick points to power our comeback and put us up by one midway through the quarter. At halftime, we had a two-point lead after scoring 22 points in the quarter. For the rest of the game, we maintained our lead and even increased it. Jefferson made runs throughout the second half, but we were able to maintain our poise and make game-winning plays. Pairing CJ with Kobe Hines for long stretches of the game really impacted the flow of the game and helped us maintain our lead.

We had very good contributions from many players in this game. Cameron Couchu came in the first half and provided four key points in that pivotal second quarter, and Jake Lovoi made a key three-pointer as well in that second quarter. Kobe chipped in with five points. Vasili scored one point and contributed key steals and assists throughout the game. JD Cheeves contributed four points and played excellent defense throughout, and CJ scored six points and was the consummate floor general. Joaquin probably played one of his more dominant games of the year with 21 points. Trent Burke was very aggressive and contributed 14 points, and Elliot Harlan played very well and contributed 10 points. We continued our tournament play against Austin Bowie.

Friday 11/22 SHS vs. Austin Bowie

Our first game on Friday was a very tough one. Bowie had a tall and physical team. We competed the entire game but could not make the key plays we needed down the stretch to pull off the comeback. Injuries played a key role in this game as well. During the game we lost Joaquin Andrews for most of the game with a knee issue, Vasili Fakaris was lost for a short time during the game with an arm cut, Elliot Harlan was lost for big portions of the game due to a sprained ankle, and Jake Lovoi was lost for the tournament due to a back injury.

The first quarter for SHS was a horror show. We could not make any shots and lost Joaquin midway through the first quarter. We only scored three points the entire quarter. We got on track a bit in the second quarter with JD Cheeves (seven points in quarter) and Elliot Harlan (six points in quarter) carrying the offense. We were down by 10 at halftime. In the second half, it was an uphill battle throughout. We really did not reduce their lead in the quarter, but there were signs we were starting to get hot. We scored 14 points in the third quarter, led by Vasili and CJ Williams scoring six points each in the quarter. Then in the fourth quarter, we made our move and cut their lead to four points. We made a furious comeback with key defensive contributions being made by Vasili, JD, CJ, Elliot, and Kobe Hines!! JD played a dominant game for SHS, scoring six points in the fourth quarter and ended up scoring 13 points in the game.

Unfortunately it wasn’t enough, we missed some shots at the end of the game, and they made their shots. They pushed the lead back up to 11, ending with a 49-60 score. In addition to JD’s 13 points, Elliot scored 10, CJ scored 9, and Vasili scored 8. Trent Burke scored a three-pointer in the fourth quarter, and Kobe, Joaquin, and Logan Hatcher chipped in with two points a piece.

Friday 11/22 SHS vs. SA Veterans Memorial

Our second Friday game was much better. We had some players play through injury which really helped our performance, and we were able to transfer lessons from our previous two games. We started much faster in this game as we held a 15-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. Joaquin Andrews fought through his knee injury and scored 10 points in the first quarter. We cooled down a bit in the second quarter and only scored nine, but our defense was excellent!!!! We held them to only 2 points in the quarter, which allowed us to have a 24-10 lead at half. In that second quarter, JD Cheeves paced our scoring with five points. In the second half, we maintained our lead, played smart and efficient basketball, and survived minor injury scares from Kobe Hines and CJ Williams. In the end, we took home a relatively easy 52-36 victory and were able to get some players some playing time. We were able to get Andrew Marks, Joe Selesky, and LD Hoskins some key minutes. Joaquin led all scorers with 16 points, JD scored 12, CJ scored seven, Elliot Harlan scored six, Kobe scored five, and Trent Burke, Kenneth Owens, and Cameron Couchu each chipped in with two points.

Saturday 11/23 SHS vs. Laredo Alexander

Our last game was at 8 am (ugh!!!!) , against a very physical Laredo team. They started with a 2-3 zone that caused us some early problems. We only scored seven points in the first quarter with multiple turnovers but also many missed tough and contested shots. We were also impacted because Joaquin Andrews picked up two quick fouls and had to be taken out of the game. We settled down in the second quarter and improved our scoring to 11 with a balanced attack approach to the zone. At halftime, we were down 24-18, but there was a feeling that we could make enough plays in the second half to overcome this opponent.

In the second half, we were able to continue our balanced scoring approach, but we made some early turnovers that led to easy buckets for Alexander that allowed them to score 14 points in the quarter. Unfortunately, we continued to have foul issues with Joaquin that significantly limited the amount of time he played, and we also had key players, Kobe Hines and CJ Williams, miss some time in the half due to minor knee injuries. Going into the fourth we made a quick push to get back into the game. We were successful cutting their lead to four, but we just could not get over the hump and eventually lost 50-43.

Individual scoring was as follows: JD Cheeves scored 11 points on some awesome baseline moves and acrobatic finishes at the rim. Both Trent Burke and Elliot Harlan scored 10 points, with Elliot displaying his sweet-shooting stroke and Trent displaying great ball-handling skills on his drives to the goal and an excellent shooting touch. Vasili Fakaris chipped in five points, CJ Williams scored four, Joaquin fought foul trouble and was able to score 2 points, and Kobe scored one point.

We go into the Thanksgiving break with a 5-5 record. Not exactly where we want to be, but there have been enough signs to feel very good about the team and the progress we are making. We have been put in many challenging situations that have caused us to have to grow as a team. We are transitioning from our zone defense of last year to a man-to-man and when needed, an aggressive full-court pressing defense that is exciting and fun to watch. We have scorers at all positions and we play hard!!!!

Next week we only have one game on Tuesday at home against a very good Katy Jordan team that is 7-1. Varsity plays at 11:30 am. Please come out and support your Boys Basketball Team!