Boys Basketball: Nelson Paces El Cerrito Victory

El Cerrito 70, Hercules 60

The Star: Eric Nelson had 18 points , eight of them coming in the third quarter.

 The Turning Point: Leading by just seven points heading to the fourth quarter, the Gauchos score the first five points of the period to open a 12-point lead. Even though it got close late, it was the early spurt that gave them the lead to play with.

The Quote: "Every time a team comes here, they play it like its the championship," said coach Michael Booker.

What's Next? El Cerrito hosts Alameda on Friday, Jan. 21 at 7 p.m.

Bottom Line: The Gauchos height and speed controlled the game for the most part, but mental lapses kept the game close until the end.

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For much of Tuesday night's game, the boys basketball team used its speed and height to keep the pesky team from Hercules High just far enough away, so a win was never in question.

Then, there were those little stretches that made coach Mike Booker just shake his head.

The Gauchos (13-5, 4-0 ACCAL) defeated the Titans (5-13, 1-3) 70-60 to remain unbeaten in league play. But despite the double digit win, there were a few tense moments for El Cerrito.

Leading 37-31 at the half, the Gauchos -- ranked No. 6 in the latest -- got a big performance from Eric Nelson in the third quarter as the center scored eight of his teams 16 points. Despite a six-point quarter by Hercules guard Marcel Jones, the Gauchos still held a 53-46 advantage heading to the fourth.

A quick four points by Jamontee Condor extended the El Cerrito lead to 56-46 and a jump shot by Bobby Syvanthong opened a 12-point advantage which seemed to put the stubborn Titans squad away.

But that was premature thinking as Hercules went on a 9-4 run, behind the shooting of Rueben Rodriguez (seven points in the run) to close the deficit to 62-55. After a turnover, a jumper by Jones found the net and the Gauchos' lead was just 62-57 with three minutes left in the game.

"(Rodriguez) kept them in the game," Booker said. "We were missing some assignments and we were unable to get past a certain point when we had some spurts."

After a timeout, the Gauchos righted the ship and scored eight of the final 11 points to secure the win.

Justin Johnson added 14 points for the Gauchos and Marcellus Pippins chipped in with 13.

"Eric (Nelson) had 18 points but he should have had 28 or 30," Booker said. "We stopped feeding him the ball and we should have done it more because we had a height advantage. Hercules is not a bad team and they played us tough."

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Hercules