Saturday night featured the boys and girls varsity hoops teams in action against Lathrop. It was the boys Senior Night, recognizing the teams 8 seniors prior to the 7:30 tip off. I do not have the stats in front of me at this time, but will add those when available.
The Senior Wolves jumped out all over Lathrop in the first quarter. It seemed like everything the Wolves put up fell, and Lathrop looked a little lost. Threes from Seniors Branden Viotto and Kyle Taylor had their three point game going and the inside play from Seniors Dominic Young, Nate Yaw, and Colten Palmer was working. Coming off the bench were seniors Clarence Summers, Steven Carlos and Tre’vone Johnson were just taking it to Lathrop.
The Wolves really looked good in the first half. Like they continued the tempo from the previous nights fourth quarter against South. It was not a perfect game played, but for the missed passes or shots made by the Wolves, they cleaned up there mistakes with second chance shots, steals, and forced Lathrop into turnovers or bad shot attempts. Young played another great game, in front of his father, Coach Young of the East T-Birds Varsity boys.
But again, Senior Nate Yaw was amazing. The control Yaw has over his body is incredible. At one point in the first half, Nate went up for a lay up and was fouled. The foul pushed Nate past the backboard and some how he was able to keep control of the ball and and the last second flicked the ball up for the basket, earning a chance for a three point play.
The second half however was a different story. Shots stopped falling for the Wolves, turnovers, missed rebounds, and Lathrop crawled back, took the lead and never looked back. While both teams switched hoops for the second half, it appeared the scoring stayed with the hoops.
It was frustrating to watch, seeing the open shots not taken, the open pass not made, the various things that allowed Lathrop to comeback and win. So, I decided to play around a little. I pulled out a camera that I do not use all the time. For you camera geeks it is the very first Canon 1D. This camera was first made in 2001, is only 4 megapixels (compared to the 1D MkII with 8.2 mp and the 7D’s 18 mp I normally shoot with), has a CCD sensor instead of the more common CMOS sensor which lets me shoot my strobes at a faster shutter speed. I threw my 300mm lens on it and climbed to the top of the bleachers to shoot. Watching for something special. And I got something special, and it did not come from one of the seniors. It came from a junior, a junior that says he can not jump high enough to dunk. One Kelechi Madubuko. He had a break-a-way that he went in for a lay up, and he jumped so high, even though he did not dunk it I believe the following picture says it all.
As soon as I get stats, I will update this post.
