Central Valley’s varsity boys basketball team remained winless in Central California Conference play after losing to El Capitan and Buhach Colony this past week.
The Hawks dropped to 4-18 overall and 0-6 in the CCC standings following Friday night’s 59-47 home loss to El Capitan.
“There are points where we play pretty good basketball,” coach Mike Rodriguez said. “We can’t maintain it for a whole game.”
The two teams committed a combined 54 turnovers, including 31 by Central Valley.
" They forced us to play a little faster than what our guys are comfortable with.”Coach Mike Rodriguez
“Our goal is to force teams into at least 20 turnovers a game,” Rodriguez said. “We did that. We just gave the ball back to them. We weren’t aggressive attacking their pressure. We panicked. They forced us to play a little faster than what our guys are comfortable with.”
Central Valley’s Juan Brambila totaled a team-high 10 points against El Capitan.
Sunny Khabra and Jacob Ingraham contributed eight points apiece.
Kadin Manor and Jordan Lombardo each scored five points.
Yoshi Kumar and Xavier Valencia chipped in with four and three points, respectively.
Andy Souksavath and Amari Taylor both had two points.
Buhach Colony pulled away for a 67-50 win over Central Valley on Jan. 22 in Atwater.
The Hawks trailed by just one point at intermission.
Down by just six points, Central Valley allowed Buhach Colony to take control in the fourth quarter.
“We had a string of four straight possessions we turned the ball over,” Rodriguez said. “That turned the lead into 17.”
Khabra paced the Hawks with 19 points. He made five treys.
Manor, Brambila and Kumar added nine, six and four points, respectively.
Souksavath and Taylor finished with three points each.
Lombardo added two points.
Central Valley standout guard Angel Zamarripa did not compete against El Capitan and Buhach Colony.
Sidelined due to illness, Zamarripa’s presence on offense was sorely missed.
“It’s tough,” Rodriguez said. “He can be the leading scorer for us on any single night.”
Central Valley will try to secure its first conference victory of the season this week.
The Hawks will play at Atwater today and host Golden Valley on Friday.
Both games will begin at 7:15 p.m.
“If we stop turning the ball over, we’ll be fine,” Rodriguez said. “You can’t give teams extra possessions.”
