Courtesy photo
The Mineral County High boys junior varsity basketball team won a tournament in Bishop last week after going 4-1.
Both the junior varsity and varsity boys basketball teams traveled to Bishop for the three-day holiday tournament last week. The junior varsity boys went 4-1 and defeated the Rio Hondo Prep from Southern California to win the championship game. Their only loss was to Bishop in their third game of the tournament. The young Serpents redeemed themselves the next day as they handled Bishop easily to get into the final game against Rio Hondo. They also beat Lee Vining and Lone Pine.
The varsity boys opened the tournament up against the tough Bishop team who were undefeated in the Serpent Classic. The Broncos took advantage of early turnovers and a stagnant Serpent offense to coast to a 57-44 win. The boys took on Big Pine the next days as the Serpents got back on track with a 75-41 victory. Robert McFalls had 22 points; Andre Davis had 16; Victor Montoya had 14 and Taylen Wachsmuth added 10.
In an evening game, Rio Hondo beat Bishop by one, 53-52, which lead to a semi-final match-up of MCHS versus Bishop and Antelope Valley versus Rio Hondo.
Antelope Valley beat Rio Hondo by 32 to advance. Bishop looked like they were going to run the Serpents out of the gym as they hit six three-pointers in the first quarter and led 22-10. The Serpent defense stiffened holding the Broncos to seven points in the second quarter and scoring 17 points to cut the lead down to two, 29-27.
In the third quarter, the defense stayed solid and with Davis hitting four three-pointers led the Serpents to outscoring the Broncos 20-9 to lead 47-38. The Mineral County crew held on in the fourth quarter to win the game 63-52 and advance to the final game. Davis had 24 points, McFalls had 14, Wachsmuth had 11 and Montoya added 8.
In the championship game, Antelope Valley had too much size and depth. The Serpents gave a good battle as they were down ten, 334-24 at the intermission. The boys cut the lead to six early in the third, but unfortunately as everybody started running out of gas, the big guys don’t shrink. The final was 65-41. Wachsmuth had 17 points, Davis had eight and Devon Davis had six points.
The Serpents will be back in conference action this week. Friday, the Serpents will play Sierra Lutheran there and Saturday the Serpents will be home against Coleville starting at 2 p.m. Go Serpents.
