Casa Grande opens boys basketball season with a win over Maria Carrillo

Gauchos get a spark off the bench to win first game|

Casa Grande High School’s boys basketball team exposed a secret in its first game of the new season - it can play pretty good defense. Expected to be a high-scoring squad with several outstanding shooters returning, Casa used a tenacious man-to-man defense to hold off Maria Carrillo’s Pumas, 54-50, on Saturday afternoon in the Carrillo gym.

“We’re beginning to realize that good defense leads to good offense,” said Casa Grande coach Jake Lee.

The game wasn’t as close as the final score shows, although it was a battle until a feisty group of Casa Grande reserves rallied the Gauchos into an 7-point lead at the outset of the fourth quarter.

Casa Grande’s high-scoring propensity was as good as advertised early as the Gauchos opened the season with a run-and-gun 19-point first quarter, building a 12-point lead. Before the small matinee gathering in the Carrillo gym had hardly settled in, the Gauchos had five points on a tip by Jack Gallagher and a 3-point hit by Noah Bailey. Before the period had ended, Bailey had drained another trey, scored 10 points, and Casa appeared on its way to a romp.

But as soon as the spigot turned on, it turned off. Casa scored just seven points in the second period, and by half its lead was down to 26-19.

The inexplicable Casa Grande shooting slump continued through the third period, and by the time the fourth quarter buzzed into existence, each side had 37 points.

Throughout the hard times, the Casa Grande defense, sparked by Gallagher, Garrett Siebels and a host of their teammates, playing helping, hustling in-your-face stoppage, kept Maria Carrillo from ever really getting into an offensive flow.

It was a group of scrappy bench players - Taju Grant, Sonny Gigloti and Taiyo Logan - who took over the game at the outset of the fourth quarter.

“They gave us a spark. They got everyone fired up,” Lee said. Grant hit a 3-pointer and scored five points during a 10-3 Casa run, and the Gauchos were in front for good.

Maria Carrillo played the foul-for-possession game over the final three minutes, but the Pumas were only successful enough to shrink the final losing margin.

Unofficially, Bailey led Casa Grande with 15 points, while Siebels ended with 10.

Casa Grande plays in the Rotary Tip-Off Tournament in McKinleyville this weekend, opening against Arcata at 9 o’clock Thursday night. Other teams in the tournament are Heritage, Lincoln, River Valley, KIPP King, Lower Lake and host McKinleyville. The championship game will be played Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

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