Schools
Boys Basketball: Benicia Falls Short of Skyline 67-63
The Panthers late rally wasn't enough to stop the Titans.
The boys basketball teams erased a 16-point deficit but never led in its season-opening 67-63 loss to Skyline on Thursday night.
Panthers’ coach Steven Carter said he was pleased with how the team played in the second half but that a sluggish first half cost them.
“I’ll accept that,” he said. “It was first game jitters. If we play them again we’ll beat them.”
Find out what's happening in Beniciafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Benicia trailed by 10 points at the end of the first quarter and by 11 at halftime. The Panthers seemed poised to collapse in the third, falling behind by 16 but fought back to keep the deficit at 11 at the end of the third.
Benicia (0-1) would outscore the Titans (2-1) in the fourth 20-13. The Panthers put Skyline in a full-court press in the final period, which was one of Carter’s second half adjustments.
Find out what's happening in Beniciafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“We just stayed in man-to-man,” he said. “We were trying out a new defense [in the first half), the 1-3-1. We hadn’t perfected it and we left them open for some shots.”
Benicia’s 13-5 run to start the fourth led to the Panthers trimming the Titans’ lead to just two points three times in the final two minutes, but Skyline was able to hold Benicia back each time.
Ben Jazuk’s put-in basket with eight seconds left in the contest made it a 65-63 game but it would be as close as Benicia would get. On the Titans’ following inbounds pass, Skyline’s Felton Maxie was intentionally fouled and sent to the free-throw line with the Panthers in the bonus. Maxie would make both free throws to put the game out of reach.
When the Benicia defense clicked, Carter felt that luck sided with the Titans.
“Those guys hit some lucky shots,” he said. “Every time we held them down they hit a lucky shot.”
Carter was happy that his team fought back against a Skyline team that reached the playoffs last year.
“It shows how much we’ve grown from last year,” he said.
Jazuk led Benicia with 16 points and Armand Smith had 13. Skyline’s Paris Davis led all scorers with 23 points.
The Panthers will travel to Ceres to play Central Valley High School on Saturday. The freshman boys will play at 3 p.m. and the JV and varsity boys to follow.
Skyline 67, Benicia 63
1 2 3 4 FSkyline
20 21 13 13 67 Benicia 10 20 13 20 63 Individuals — (fg ftm-fta tp) Skyline Wright 4 4-7-16, Sasada 1 0-0 2, Jones 2 0-0 4, Golson 2 1-3 5, Davis 9 4-9 23, Adams 1 2-4 4, Davis 1 1-2 6, Maxie 2 2-2 6. Totals 22 14-27 67. CV Wesley 1 1-2 5, DeCarlo 2 4-5 9, Wheeler 1 1-2 3, Smith 4 1-1 13, Koenen 1 1-2 3, Mitchell 1 0-4 2, Jazuk 4 8-13 16, Manansala 2 1-2 5, Cox 3 0-0 6, Jazuk 1 0-0 2. Totals 20 17-31 63. 3-point goals: Skyline - Wright, P. Davis, A. Davis. Benicia - Wesley, DeCarlo, Smith. Records: Skyline 2-1, Benicia 1-0 Boys basketball, 12/1/2011JV boys
The Benicia JV boys basketball team defeated Skyline in its season opener 56-49 Thursday night.
The Panthers (1-0) let the Titans back into the game late in the fourth quarter after Benicia coach Thomas McClanahan sat his starters. Benicia’s 15-point lead was whittled to seven points with less than 1:30 to go.
“I knew we kind of had it in the bag but I put in a lot of subs that I wanted to see how they were going to react under some pressure situations,” Panthers coach McClanahan said. “Some guys that don’t get to play that much got to handle the ball in those situations. They got the lead down but I wasn’t worried that they were going to come back and win the game.”
Derek Johnstone led Benicia with 23 points and Eric Cross had 8.
The Panthers play next at Central Valley High School in Ceres on Saturday.