Beyer sputters, falls into losers’ bracket at Holiday Hoop Classic

Tanner Gentry growled. Ryan Frakes chewed on the neck of his jersey.

Georgie Dancer simply stared off into space, each frustrated he let a former Modesto Christian Holiday Hoop Classic champion off the mat.

Beyer returned to the preeminent Northern California high school basketball tournament after a years-long hiatus with a team capable of making a run to the final. Instead, the Patriots will slug it out in the losers’ bracket after blowing a 10-point lead in a 58-54 loss to El Camino Real on Saturday evening.

Brandon Russell, son of former NBA player Bryon Russell, scored 26 points and Myles Marchand tallied 10, none bigger than his finish over Dancer with a minute left. Marchand attacked the rim, flipping his shot over Dancer’s desperate swipe to make it 56-48.

Marchand and Terell O’Neal sank free throws in the final 25.2 seconds, giving El Camino Real the cushion to survive Beyer’s last gasp.

Frakes and Dancer made three-pointers in the final minute.

Dancer scored a team-high 15 points but shot just 5 of 17 from the floor. The Sacramento State-bound point guard also had four assists and six turnovers.

El Camino Real, which won the Holiday Hoop Classic in 2012, will play Immanuel in a quarterfinal Monday evening, while Beyer joins the breakfast crowd. The Patriots will battle Saugus of Santa Clarita at 10:30 a.m. Monday. Saugus faded in the second half of a 68-63 loss to Immanuel.

“Obviously, I want to win and go as far as we can and play the best teams here,” Beyer coach Kyle McKim said. “We’re still getting a good matchup in Saugus. We just want to play good teams and challenge ourselves as the year goes.”

The Patriots led by 10 in the first half. DeAngelo Dancer (eight points) and Gentry (seven) highlighted a 14-0 run that spanned the first and second quarters with three-pointers. Brian Perry (six) also had three points as Beyer seized a 22-13 lead.

The damage could have been far greater, though. The Patriots attempted 15 free throws during that stretch but converted just eight.

Still, the lead ballooned to 32-22 with less than three minutes left in the half. That’s when El Camino Real found its championship form and cut Beyer’s lead to 32-30 at halftime. The Conquistadors netted the final eight points of the half and outscored the Patriots 13-5 in the third quarter to swing the game.

Beyer had just one field goal – a three-pointer by Frakes – during a roughly 10-minute, 30-second dry spell. Worse, the Patriots’ search for a spark took them farther and farther away from the basket.

“They did a good job defensively of keeping us out of the paint,” McKim said. “We try to play inside-out, and I think they made us settle for a lot of outside shots, and we didn’t make a lot of outside shots in the second half. When we’re not hitting, it’s tough. We didn’t get a lot of offensive rebounds, so we got a little stagnant there for a while.”

The Patriots were 9 of 29 from beyond the three-point line.

“We have to keep our three-point shots a little more in the rhythm of the offense,” McKim said. “We were pressing a little bit. We could have moved the ball better before we took a three.”

Reserve forward Sam Leventini helped keep afloat Beyer’s hopes with his hustle and physical play. He scored the team’s first eight points of the fourth quarter and took several charges on defense.

“Sam absolutely got us back into the game, scoring buckets around the hoop, hitting elbow jumpers,” McKim said. “I think he took like five charges or something like that, maybe even in a row there. The energy he brings is irreplaceable.”

Leventini’s layup on a pass from freshman Dom Dancer with 5:38 left made it 46-45. McKim’s second unit had closed the gap.

“We coach by feel. When one group is playing well, we leave them in a little bit longer and let the kids play it out,” McKim said. “We play 10-plus guys most games and feel like all those guys can contribute.”

With a chance to strike a winning blow, though, McKim turned to his first unit. He summoned the Dancer brothers, Gentry and Frakes. The decision backfired as Beyer managed just nine points over the final 5:38.

“That’s the rub as a coach. Obviously, we ended up losing, so maybe I should have left them in longer,” McKim said. “We have a lot of proven guys who are all-league performers. They’ve earned the right over the last four years to finish a game like that.”

This story was originally published December 27, 2015 at 1:59 AM with the headline "Beyer sputters, falls into losers’ bracket at Holiday Hoop Classic."