Posted on 08 February 2014 by La Habra Journal
Adam Cooley scored 14 points as the Highlanders fell to Troy on the road, 68-63, Friday night.
by Sarah Fenton
La Habra Journal
A hard fought game didn’t end well for the La Habra boys’ basketball team as it lost to Troy, 68-63, on Friday night at Troy High School.
“They’re a really good three point shooting team, so defensively we wanted to really keep them on the side and pressure the ball,” said David Ploog, La Habra head coach. “And then we did a lot of offense where we wanted to drive down the lanes because we’re a better team at layups. So we were trying to do that, but they were doing a better job keeping us out of the paint.”
The score was close throughout the game, forcing both teams to battle it out until the end.
La Habra (15-9, 4-4) started the game strong with a drive for a layup by Adam Cooley followed by two consecutive three-pointers by David Desatoff and Zachary Gray.
Troy (15-10, 5-3) responded with a layup by David Bayeh, who was also fouled on the drive and sank his free throw to complete the three-point play.
La Habra continued to push the ball on offense for the majority of the quarter, but Troy fought back by scoring eight consecutive points to cut La Habra’s lead to 21-18.
Trailing by three points with seconds left in the quarter, Troy inbounded the ball to Josh Carnesi who sank a long three at the buzzer to tie the game, 21-21.
The game got physical in the second quarter as both teams played hard on defense in an attempt to keep each other from scoring. The Warriors took the lead, 32-31, going into halftime.
“It was defense,” Ploog said about their strategy for the second half. “They had the ball too much in the middle and that cost us. We talked about keeping them out of the middle and we did a better job in the second half, but they hit big shots and you have to give them credit for hitting big threes.”
The Highlanders started the second half with a drive down the middle for a layup by Desatoff, giving them the lead, 33-32.
The ball continued to bounce back and forth between both teams on offense, but Troy regained the lead at the end of the third quarter, advancing the score to 44-43.
Gray came out in the beginning of the fourth quarter with a layup allowing La Habra to regain the lead. Troy responded with a jump shot, but then fouled Cooley who made a free throw to tie the game.
After a jump shot and a big three-pointer by Troy, Cooley was slammed into the wall and fouled. Despite getting up slowly, Cooley sank both free throws.
Halfway through the quarter, Justin Jaimez was fouled and made both free throws, allowing La Habra to regain the lead, 54-53.
Troy responded by sinking a three-pointer and two consecutive layups, taking the lead, 60-54, with less than three minutes remaining in the game.
“Their threes were the biggest thing that hurt us,” Ploog said. “We were rotating fine, but we have to give them credit. We didn’t necessarily do anything wrong, we played well. Big teams step up in big moments and they were able to do it.”
La Habra tried to fight back on offense, but Troy’s defense kept them from regaining the lead.
The Highlanders had three players scoring in double digits. Desatoff led with 25 points, Cooley had 14, and Gray had 12.
La Habra’s next game will be against Sonora at home on Tuesday.
“We have to do a lot on offense,” Ploog said. “We didn’t have our best offensive game last time so we’re going to look at film and try to see what we can do on offense and think about some plays to get some more points.”
GIRLS VARSITY
The La Habra girls’ basketball team lost to Troy, 62-17, on Friday at Troy High School.
“At practice we worked on man-to-man defense, full-court pressure up and down the court, and our half-court press,” said Rudy Constancio, La Habra assistant coach. “We made some changes when those things didn’t work and ran some zone, but they’re a good shooting team.”
La Habra’s (13-10, 6-2) young team played hard in the Freeway League’s battle for first place, but the Warriors’ experience allowed them to take the victory.
Troy’s (20-5, 8-0) press forced La Habra to rush their passes, resulting in turnovers. La Habra tried to push the ball on offense, but Troy’s defense was hard to break. Megan Chancellor sank a three-pointer at the end of the first quarter.
Emma Zener started off the second quarter with a drive down the baseline, but was fouled on the way up to the basket and made 1-of-2 free throws.
Lizette Martinez then sank a jump shot with less than a minute remaining in the second quarter.
“I told the girls to keep working hard, keep fighting, move the ball, and cut down on the outside shots,” Constancio said about their strategy for the second half. “We were shooting a little too much on the outside. We wanted to attack the basket and not sit there and try to match baskets with them at the three-point level.”
The Highlanders came back fighting in the second half and kept the Warriors from scoring in the fourth quarter.
La Habra’s next game will be against Sonora at home on Tuesday.
“Our strategy is to be aggressive,” Constancio said. “They’re a very good team as well. They have a couple more losses than we do, but we don’t take that for granted at all. We’ll expect a tough game.”