Sequoias men's basketball moves to 6-0 with two wins at Giant Classic
By Nick Giannandrea
COS ATHLETICS
College of the Sequoias men's basketball team experienced some good and bad during its Giant Classic crossover event that also featured San Francisco, Los Angeles Southwest and Contra Costa.
The good?
A pair of wins -- 93-65 over Contra Costa on Nov. 16 and 91-88 over L.A. Southwest on Nov. 17 -- before the home fans at Porter Field House to run Northern California No. 3-ranked Sequoias' season-opening win streak to six.
The bad?
Wasting a double digit second-half lead against an L.A. Southwest team that NorCal No. 1 San Francisco blew out by 36 points a day earlier.
"This weekend was a little bit of a rollercoaster," said Giants coach Dallas Jensen, whose team is one of eight in the state without a loss. "Of course I'm glad we won both.
"I thought we played fairly well against Contra Costa. I thought our energy was really, really good. I thought we took a little bit of a step back (against L.A. Southwest). Obviously part of that was how well L.A. Southwest played. But I didn't think we were the best version of ourselves. In order to get to where we want to be, I think we need to be a lot more consistent on both ends of the floor and make sure guys play with that sense of urgency and stay sharp throughout the course of 40 minutes."
Against L.A. Southwest, Sequoias trailed throughout the game's first 6 minutes and didn't take its first lead (12-9) until a 3-pointer by Davis White (Santa Clarita) with 13 minutes and 38 seconds left in the first half.
The Giants wouldn't trail again. But they also were never able to put the Cougars (2-4) away, despite leading by 10 at halftime and as many as 13 in the second half.
L.A. Southwest trimmed its deficit to two points (77-75) with 4:40 remaining, but Sequoias responded with an 11-5 run to take an 88-80 lead with 1:17 left.
The Cougars closed the gap down to three points (91-88) following a three-point play with 1 second remaining, but they wouldn't get the back back before time expired.
"We didn't come out really with a sense of urgency or focus tonight. Some guys lacked focus and some guys lacked energy," Jensen said. "We made some big shots in key moments, but I just didn't think we were very, very sharp tonight. And even down the stretch in the last couple minutes of the game, it just didn't feel like we were competing at a really high level. At the end of the day I'm glad that we won, but I think this also goes to show this team has a heck of a lot to work on to get to where we need to be."
Haire led the way for the Giants, scoring all 15 of his points in the second half, to go along with eight rebounds, four blocks and two assists.
Leyton McGovern (Anderson, Ind.) delivered 13 points, nine rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block for Sequoias.
Four other Giants scored in double figures, including Kevin Anderson (Atlanta) with 12 points, six rebounds, two assists and a steal; White with 11 points, four rebounds and a steal; Jayson Mathews (Sacramento) with 11 points, six rebounds and four assists; and Tyree Gill (Sacramento) with 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and a steal.
Sequoias also received six points, three rebounds and an assist from Jamaal Phatty (Frankfurt, Germany); five points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals from Cameron Kelly (Decatur, Ga.); five points and three rebounds from Ahmad Clark (Atlanta); and two points, a rebound, assist and steal from Raydon Thorson.
The Giants allowed a season-high 88 points to L.A. Southwest, led by 31 points from Kenneth Tyree, who converted 10 of 17 shots, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range. Sequoias entered allowing an average of 59.4 points per game.
"Our defense was just OK. I didn't think we moved off the ball particularly well," Jensen said. "I actually thought we were half decent on (Tyree), but he just made some big time shots. He's a really, really good player. Coach Mack (Cleveland) always has talent. They always have scorers and guys who can create and make plays for others. Once they get hot, they are really hard to guard. Unfortunately, we let them get hot and get going early, and it carried throughout the rest of the game and made life a little more difficult than it should have been."
The Giants had a much easier time against Contra Costa, getting a thunderous dunk from Haire to open the scoring 40 seconds into the game and never training.
Sequoias essentially put the game out of reach by outscoring Contra Costa 21-0 to open the second half, including a pair of 3-pointers from White and four points from Haire. to turn a 40-24 lead into a 61-24 advantage with 15:18 remaining.
White led the Giants with 18 points, three rebounds and a steal.
Haire delivered 17 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, two blocks and a steal.
McGovern (13 points, two rebounds, five assists and four steals); Clark (11 points and nine rebounds); and Kelly (10 points, five rebounds, two assists and a block) also scored in double figures for Sequoias.
Other contributions came from Anderson (nine points, three rebounds and two steals); Gill (six points, seven rebounds and four assists); Phatty (four points, five rebounds and a block); Mathews (three points, two rebounds, five assists and a steal); and Thorson (two points, three rebounds, four assists and a steal).
The Giants return to action on the road, when they face Southern California No. 3 Citrus (4-1) at 4 p.m. Nov. 22 in Glendora.
Sequoias' next home game is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 26 against NorCal No. 13 Diablo Valley (2-2).
"I think we are so far away from where we can be," Jensen said. "But there is just a lot of learning with a lot of new faces and, obviously, you try to work out a lot of those kinks throughout November and December heading into conference play."