Beyer’s comeback falls just short in WAC opener against Los Banos
The Beyer High boys basketball team likes to play fast.
The Patriots full court press and trap in the half court, creating steals that they convert into easy points.
When things click on defense, the offense usually follows, but the start in their Western Athletic Conference opener against Los Banos was anything but ideal.
The Patriots scored just eight points in the first quarter and trailed by 14 heading into halftime. While they climbed back into Wednesday night’s contest, cutting the deficit to single digits in the fourth quarter, the Patriots fell to the visiting Tigers, 62-58.
“We try to cause a lot of chaos on the defensive end,” said coach Kyle McKim. “They did a great job of hitting shots, and we didn’t have one of our best shooting nights. Credit to them, they hit a lot of shots and that was impressive on their end.”
Beyer went into the matchup 10-4, looking for their first win of the new year after beating Johansen and Escalon in late December.
The Tigers blitzed Beyer in the first quarter, outscoring the Patriots 20-8. The hot start continued in the second quarter as it seemed like everything was falling for Los Banos. It connected on five three pointers and moved the ball for easy layups in the first 16 minutes.
While they were able to force turnovers, the Patriots couldn’t convert on their opportunities. They trailed 38-24 at the half.
“In the first half, we got a lot of steals, but we weren’t able to do a good job capitalizing on them,” McKim said. “The first half, we were too tentative.”
Midway through the third quarter, things clicked for the Patriots.
They scored nine consecutive points to close the gap to 10 points with 3:26 left in the period. By the end of the quarter, the Tigers’ lead was 12. Jamal Davis led all Beyer scorers in the quarter with six points while Jahmaree Gonder and Prince Major added five apiece.
“We hustled more and ran through passing lanes,” said Davis, who finished with 10 second half points. “We just played more aggressively.”
Beyer allowed only seven fourth quarter points as it slowly chipped away, cutting the Los Banos lead to single digits.
A right wing three from Deven Hodge cut the Tigers lead to seven with 3:26 left to play. After trading baskets, Milo Mendoza cut the deficit to just four points with just 22 seconds left, but the Patriots ran out of time.
“We were aggressive,” McKim said of the team’s second half performance. “The first half, we were unaggressive on offense. In the second half, we got those same steals, but we were aggressive trying to score out of it. We got really good shots, and you’ve got to score to win basketball games.”
The loss came with an additional cost, as Gonder, who led the team with 13 points, left the game in the third quarter with a right knee injury. He was playing in his first game of the season after sitting out the first few weeks of the season due to transfer rules.
“I hope he gets better. He’s a big factor for our team,” Davis said. “He’s one of our leaders and better ball handlers. We work our offense through him because he’s a very confident player, so hopefully he can come back soon.”
The schedule doesn’t get any easier as the Patriots continue league play Friday against Ceres, then play reigning league champion Mountain House on Monday.
“It’s a good league this year,” McKim said. “We’re going to have to battle every night … we’re going to have to bounce back on Friday night, then we play Mountain House on Monday, so it doesn’t stop.”
This story was originally published January 5, 2023 at 10:22 AM.
