On the opening tip of the boys basketball game against Mountain View HS on Feb 3., the ball bounced to Senior Casey Parsay. He caught the ball and easily scored the first bucket of the game. In just those four seconds, the Matadors gained their first lead and from then on they never looked back.
They opened up the first with a 12-2 run, and the second with an 11-0 run. And it wasn’t just about scoring. Coach Clay Stiver said that the Matadors’ primary focus was to switch on everything defensively. He emphasized this because many of the Spartans had similar playing styles and few had the capability to successfully drive to the basket. This strategy worked almost flawlessly, as the Spartans were never able to obtain any momentum offensively as they were only able to muster up 11 points by the end of the half.
The Spartans looked like they were building momentum at around the six minute mark in the fourth as junior Ryan Hammil was able to knock down a quick three off an inbounds play, immediately pick off a Matador pass and finish off with a fast break layup, cutting the deficit to 19. But as was the trend throughout the game, for every small run the Spartans had, the Matadors countered back with a much larger run of their own. And it was no different down the stretch as the Matadors came down with several offensive rebounds and were able to cash in on three-point plays. Senior Brandon Hudson played a big role both early on and at at the end of the game, earning a career high in points.
“I got a haircut so [I’m] more aerodynamic and my girlfriend was here so I had an extra boost,” Hudson said when asked about his career-high night.
After this 51-32 blowout and with the regular season winding down, the Stiver and Matadors have started to think about the El Camino League Championship as well as a CCS berth.
“We still have a shot at first place in league,” Stiver said. “We get Gunn and Saratoga one more time. It’s not so much CCS playoffs right now, its really the league title. We want to finish top three for sure.”
