Trojans press their way to win over Sonoma

<p>Petaluma High's Trojans picked Sonoma Valley's Dragons up when they got off the team bus Tuesday night and didn't let them go until the Trojans had squeezed out an impressive 65-49 victory. </p><p>The win was Petaluma's second this season against a Sonoma County League team and reversed an earlier 68-64 loss at Sonoma. </p><p>Petaluma did a lot of things right on its home court Tuesday night — finishing the majority of its inside shots, dominating the backboards and mostly running its offense smoothly. </p><p>But what the Trojans did best was press. They opened in a full-court man-to-man squeeze and kept in the Dragons' collective face all night.</p><p>“We had the right guys in the game to do it (press),” said Petaluma coach Rick Krist. “We had our speed guys in the game.”</p><p>The pressure tactics paid dividends all night, but especially in the first half, when the Trojans forced the Dragons into 15 turnovers as the Petalumans built a 37-23 intermission advantage.</p><p>In the game at Sonoma, Dragon guards Kyle Simmons and Gene Trung each scored 18 points. Tuesday night, they had a combined total of 0. “We did everything we planned on doing and that meant shutting them down,” said Petaluma's pleased coach. </p><p>Petaluma's own offense was well shared. Chris Mello led the way with 10 points, but Clay Swanson and Roman Jennings chipped in nine points each, Eric Hunskicker added eight and Jaymes Potts and Jordan Mahrt scored seven apiece. </p><p>Although Petaluma led by 10 to 15 points most of the way, the gap could have been even wider had the Trojans shot better from the free-throw line in the tightly regulated game. Although they were offered 24 free looks at the basket, the Trojans connected on only 11 of the charities. </p><p>As it turned out, it was a minor inconvenience.</p><p>After allowing the visitors the courtesy of the first basket, Mello busted home a 3-pointer and the Trojans never trailed. </p><p>With the press giving them ample opportunities to drive to the hoop, the Trojans earned 10 free throws in the first quarter. Although they converted just six, it was enough to help them build a 13-9 lead that swelled when Swanson and Mello hit 3-pointers and Swanson drained a medium-range jump shot to make the first-round score 21-9.</p><p>Sonoma kicked up a brief fuss at the outset of the second period on three consecutive 3-pointers, two by Jesse Summers, to pull to within five at 23-18. Summers scored nine in the game, while Donte Armstrong led the Dragons with 12. </p><p>But Peter Maselli did his whirling dervish thing for the Trojans, driving, spinning, boarding and generally creating havoc with the opposition and, by the half, Petaluma was back up by 14. Maselli scored six of the Petaluma points in the period.</p><p>Sonoma added two more 3-pointers in the third quarter, but even as the Dragons cut the gap to 12, Vincent Bruton, their burly center and only legitimate inside threat, was fouling his way to the bench.</p><p>Without Bruton, the Dragons were badly mismatched on the boards, and the Trojans thrived. For the game, Jennings had eight rebounds and Mello and Eric Hunsicker six apiece. </p><p>Sonoma did sneak to within seven (49-42) early in the fourth round, but Hunsicker, who played a nice all-around game, and Potts scored back-to-back, and later Potts zipped home a key 3-pointer. After that, it became a matter of running out the clock. </p><p>Petaluma is now 2-9 in league and 6-18 overall with only a final home game against Analy on Thursday left on its schedule.</p><p>The varsity victory made it a clean sweep for the Trojans, who also won the freshman and junior varsity preliminary contests.</p>