Mt. Eden K0s Casa with one-two punch

Mt. Eden’s Hornets from Hayward delivered a one-two knockout punch to Casa Grande’s Gauchos Thursday night, fighting past Casa, 59-51, in the opening round of the Sonoma County Classic hosted by Piner High School.

The loss spiraled Casa Grande into the consolation bracket, sending it into a 4 p.m. game today against Elsie Allen, a 69-25 loser to host Piner Thursday.

In other first-round games, Santa Rosa rebounded from a bad beginning to beat Las Lomas, 56-48, and Cardinal Newman handled Drake, 59-34. Today, Las Lomas follows the Casa-Elsie Allen game against Drake at 5:30 p.m., Piner plays Mt. Eden at 7 and Santa Rosa and Cardinal Newman clash at 8:30.

In Thursday’s opening round, Mt. Eden managed to get by the Gauchos with primarily a two-man offensive show.

Senior wing Jamahni Walker put a major hurt on Casa, popping from the outside for three treys, and when he wasn’t firing from the outside, he was driving through the Gaucho middle. He finished with 25 points.

Six-foot, four-inch man mountain Esa Poole ruled the paint at both ends of the court. He dropped in 18 points, all on shots of 2-feet or less, and was the game’s dominant rebounder.

Garrett Siebels canned the game’s first two baskets from beyond the arc for Casa Grande, and went on to score 18 points in the game.

Taiju Grant went on a streak for the Gauchos with three timely basketa in the second quarter, and finished with 18 points in the game.

Mt. Eden scored seven points in the final minute-plus of the first half for a 33-26 lead at the break.

The Gauchos never managed to completely close the gap, although they did pull to within four with a seven-point run in the final quarter before the Hornets closed things out with a flourish.

A major hurt for Casa Grande was an inability to accept offered charity. Casa was a telling five of 12 from the foul line.