“Never take anything for granted, never take a team lightly no matter the score, and play the same way all four quarters!” These are just a handful of sports cliches that coaches will use when their teams open up a big lead, only to see their advantage dwindle into an uncomfortable territory.
On Jan. 4, the Wilcox Chargers opened up its league season in what should have been a comfortable victory as the Chargers held a 36-14 lead at halftime. The Chargers, however, let the Los Altos Eagles soar scintillatingly close for a game where it was clear Wilcox was the better team.
Wilcox saw its 22-point lead at the break shrink to single digits in the fourth quarter. Midway through the final frame, the Eagles pulled within 45-37. At one point in the second half, Los Altos had outscored the Chargers 19-7.
Fortunately for Wilcox supporters, their team rallied to stave off a complete collapse, doing so on the back of star senior Semaj Clark. The point guard was dropping dimes during the first half, feeding his teammates with pristine passes against a zone defense.
However, in the second half, with the Eagles making some key defensive adjustments, the passing lanes were far fewer and far between.
Clark instead had to call his own number far more frequently in the second half. It was certainly the right number to call. It was an impressive mid-range jumper from Clark that stopped the bleeding after the aforementioned 19-7 run.
A little floater in the lane from Clark pushed the lead back to 10 with just under three minutes remaining in regulation. On the strength of its star, Wilcox would hold on to win by an eventual 56-45 final.
“It was a tale of two halves,” remarked Wilcox Head Coach Ruben Camacho. “First half, great energy, everybody understood their role, go in for a couple minutes, give it what you got, next man up. But halftime … well, let me just say we’ve had a lot of games like this this year. Double-digit lead at half, gets close in the second half, we haven’t put two halves together yet.”
“It was a game of runs, but we just can’t get lazy,” remarked Clark on going up big and then having to hang on late. “We can’t get lackadaisical towards the end of the game even though we are up. They almost came back.”
While it may have been a melancholy locker room postgame, a win is a win at the end of the day. One of the key plays to help close out the game was a big offensive rebound and putback layup by Adrian Aguilar that pushed the lead back to 12 with 2:28 left to play.
Brayden Rosa also found teammate Yousef Iqtish with a creative inbound pass from behind the offensive hoop, a little floater of a pass that Yousef caught and finished the basket while in midair.
Wilcox will look to play a full 32-min game and try to improve to 2-0 in league when it hosts rival Los Gatos on Friday, Jan. 10.
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