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| So far, so good |
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| Written by Chris Roberts / Tracy Press / | |
| Tuesday, 27 November 2007 | |
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West starts off season, game on the right foot.  West High’s Brett Steele and El Dorado’s Dylan Coehlo fight for the rebound in the first quarter of Tuesday’s game at home. Photo by Enrique Gutierrez/Tracy Press The Wolf Pack (1-0 preseason) kicked off their season with a 9-0 start over the first two minutes, highlighted by a Terrance Jones slam dunk. Perhaps slowed by a stretch of three games — including scrimmages with Grace Davis and Tracy — over four days, and no practice since Thanksgiving weekend, the Wolf Pack led only 32-30 at the half, but 11 points from Jones and 29 from senior guard Kris Beck — on 7-for-8 shooting from 3-point land — helped the Pack to a 71-66 win at The Den. “Always good to get off to a good start,” said Beck, who said he could tell in warm-ups it would be “one of those nights” from beyond the arc. “We got off to a good start and everything, but we got lazy,” added Beck, West’s only returning starter from last season. “We thought it’d be too easy — we started laying off in the game and we shouldn’t have. We got the win, though.” The Cougars (1-1 preseason) finished their 2006-07 season near the bottom of the pile in Pioneer Valley League play and were near last in the 2006 Tracy Winter Holiday Classic Tournament. But these Cougars had three players score in double-digits, led by 16 from mulleted point guard Matt Morecraft. West never trailed in the game, though some ball-control issues and open lanes for Morecraft and Kenny Burkey (15 points) helped El Dorado tie it at 48-48 in the third. Thanks largely to their post-play, the Wolf Pack stayed just far enough ahead. Juniors Alfonzie Young and Kyle Van Drimmelen hauled in 16 and nine rebounds, respectively, as West nabbed 44 boards as a team. Van Drimmelen finished with 14 points and Young added seven, including a free throw with 12.6 seconds left to push the lead to 70-66. Senior point guard Frankie Bonifacio, in a new position after spending 2006-07 as a forward, added four points. “We’ll take the win, but we turned the ball over too much, and they got to the basket much too easily,” said West coach Steve Thornton, whose team will take the floor next against Downey on Dec. 4. “In the first game of the year, you hope to get a win and you hope to get better. Now, we need to practice.” Pack notes Junior guard Michael Thornton made his varsity debut in front of his grandmother, Ruth, in the first game coached by his father since AAU days. “When he’s out on the floor, I yell at him as much as anybody else,” Steve Thornton said about the father-son player-coach relationship. “When we get home, we don’t talk about basketball.” (S) West 64, El Dorado 41 West (1-0 preseason) led the Cougars 39-19 at the half — thanks to Eric Green and Patrick Phillips. Green put in a game-high 32 points, and Phillips added 10. The two of them outscored the entire El Dorado team. Dexter Alcala added seven. (F) West 41, El Dorado 30 DeSean Watson and Andrew Henderson paved the way for West (1-0 preseason), with nine and eight points, respectively, in the Wolf Pack’s debut Tuesday. William Klinger scored seven points, and Josiah Washington added six. Eight players in all found the mark for the Wolf Pack.
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 27 November 2007 ) |
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