Rams top Blades in SEYL showdown
| Wednesday, Jan 21 2009 01:40 AM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 12:59 PM
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In a frenetic first half, East's Davon Shelton (23) has the ball knocked loose as he drives to the basket. Garces' Stephon Carter (44) looks to scoop it up.
Garces' Chris Dixon drew a flagrant foul against East's Malachi Harris-Jackson on this drive in the first half Tuesday.
John Harte / The Californian East's Domonique Stancil (10) has the ball knocked free by Garces' Randall Jackson (11) on this first-half play at Garces Tuesday night. NAMES CQ PER ROSTER
The defense of East's Malachi Harris-Jackson (left) and Akkeli Holley (5) force Garces and Chris Dixon (22) into a first-half turnover Tuesday night.
Ryan Bush (23), Garces' 5-foot-11 point guard, threw down a big dunk against East's Thomas Munn in the first quarter Tuesday.
An illness that had Garces star Stephon Carter dizzy and throwing up in the locker room at halftime Tuesday was just the beginning.
Then came the second half with its cloud of dust, three technical fouls, dueling crowds and enough trips to the free-throw line to make Kobe Bryant jealous.
"What else could have happened?" Garces coach Gino Lacava said.
Well, how about Garces' unexpectedly easy 82-52 rout of East High in a battle of Southeast Yosemite League unbeatens?
"All week I was telling the guys, 'We're going to win by 10, I can feel it,'" said Carter, who contributed 37 points despite a scoreless first quarter and an illness that's bothered him all week. "They said, 'I don't know, Steph, they're pretty good.' Then halftime came, and we were up by 10 (actually 9). But not in my wildest dreams do we beat them by 30."
The Rams (12-5, 4-0 SEYL) quickly built up their lead from halftime as circumstances around the game got more and more bizarre. With players and fans complaining about the heat in a packed Garces gym, officials turned the air conditioner on — for the first time in months — and let loose all the dust that had collected in the vents. The game was stopped, the doors opened and the floor swept.
Then, things got a little ugly. East's Dathan Fernandez and Garces' Christian Gapper jawed in each other's face after a Fernandez foul. Garces' Chris Dixon went tumbling to the floor on his way to the basket after a hard intentional foul. Later, Carter was hammered to the ground in front of an East crowd that loved every second of it.
"That game was out of control," East coach Milt Henderson said. "Everybody needs to do a better job, from the players to the officials, and not let the game get to that point."
For the most part, though, the players kept their cool and went to the line to sink free throw after free throw.
"You want to win so bad that everything just goes away," said Carter, who complained of a fever and headache before the game and at point pulled himself out to rest. "I just got into a zone, and we got a great, great win against a great team."
The rough-and-tumble second half shrouded what had really happened — Garces, speedy and hopeful of taking East big man Davon Shelton out of the paint, had out-foxed the Blades, physical and hopeful of controlling the Rams inside.
"We've been looking for this game since a year ago, because they swept us last year," Lacava said. "We did a lot of things right. We tried to pull their big kid outside to play defense, and he wasn't doing it, and we were getting wide-open looks."
It worked. Shelton averages 20.8 points a game but was held to 7, and East (9-8, 4-1) had to rely on Thomas Munn (15 points) and Domonique Stancil (11) for scoring.
Meanwhile, East was able to take Carter out of the game for a little while, but once he scored on a jumper with 6:11 left in the second quarter, the points came fast and furiously. He also had 12 rebounds and three steals.
Before he got going, the rest of the Rams were able to carry the load. Ryan Bush had half of his 12 points in the first quarter, and Chris Dixon and Josh Shambaugh added 8 points each.
"We knew they were going to try to get Stephon out of the game, so we needed to step up and play our roles," Bush said.
The victory leaves Garces in control of the SEYL with another showdown coming at Liberty (3-1 SEYL) on Thursday.
