PREP BASKETBALL 2016: Casa boys overcome bad beginning for good win

After a bumbling start, the Casa Grande boys basketball team got its game together and rolled to a 53-43 first-game win over Vintage on Tuesday night in the Coach Ed Iacopi Gymnasium.

Casa’s Gauchos turned the ball over in just about every way permissible under basketball rules in the fist quarter, committing nine turnovers while scoring nine points.

From that point on, the Gauchos settled down and took control of the game despite Vintage’s size advantage and full-court pressure defense that proved to be more an annoyance than a hindrance.

Casa Grande coach Jake Lee credited Gaucho team captains Vikram Singh, Brenden Kiernan and Ian Cerruti with getting their team on course.

“We might have been a little nervous playing our first game at home,” Lee said. “The captains stepped up and told the players to settle down and play our game. Once we had time to catch our breath we were all right.”

Casa managed to keep the visitors’ 6-8 freshman Jhaylon Martinez away from the backboards most of the game, holding him to eight points and even fewer rebounds.

“We’ve been practicing boxing out from the first day of practice and tonight we did it,” Lee explained.

The Crusher full-court pressure was almost a non-factor.

“We were prepared for their press,” the Casa coach said. “Once we got into half court, we were able to play our game.”

Despite their bad beginning, the Gauchos’ defense had the game tied at 9-9 after the first quarter.

Vintage scored the first three points of the second period, but then Casa Grande turned the game around with a 10-point surge that gave it a lead it never gave up.

Junior Josh Jovick started the surge by following up a missed shot and proceeded to pop in a pair of 3-pointers in the time span of just over a minute. He finished with a game-high 20 points, hitting four shots from beyond the arc and helped offset Vintage’s size advantage with seven rebounds.

By the time the Casa Grande streak ended on a pair of drives by Cerruti, the Gauchos led 23-15, and never trailed again as its advantage wavered between five and a high of 16 (48-32), achieved in the fourth period when Jovick went on another streak, scoring seven unanswered points.

Vintage showed a spark of hope late when Nick Serb forced his way to the hoop for six of his eight game points, but by then Casa could play a clock game and settle for a double-digit win.

Cerruti had a nice game for Casa Grande with 10 points and three assists, while Singh scored seven points and pulled down seven rebounds.

Sophomore Noah Bailey was impressive in his varsity debut with seven points, five assists and three steals.

Senior Patrick Brodsky helped the Gauchos gain the upper hand on the backboards with seven rebounds and also scored six points.

Martinez, Serb and Alec Cornwell each scored eight points for Vintage.

Casa Grande now goes north to play in the McKinleyville Tip-Off Classic on Thursday through Saturday.

Casa also won Tuesday’s junior varsity game, beating Vintage, 51-41.