Beckman’s basketball team got strong efforts from (starting on left) Aaman Soma, Dylan Thoerner and Shubh Khandhadia in a tournament victory over Warren Tuesday. (Tim Burt photos)
Beckman’s boys basketball team is hoping to make some noise this year and capture the school’s first Pacific Coast League title.
The Patriots are showing promise in the first week of the season.
To see the slide show, please click on the first photo
Beckman won its second game out of the gate, defeating Warren 59-46 Tuesday afternoon to win its pool in the Rumble for Rosecrans Avenue Tournament at Sunny Hills.
The Patriots held a 41-39 lead going into the final stanza but outscored Warren 18-7 in the final quarter. Senior Dylan Thoerner led the way, scoring 25 points. After scoring one point in the first quarter, Thoerner scored 13 in the second quarter and continued to play well for the rest of the contest.
“We had to make big adjustments,” said Beckman Coach John Goins. “We went to a very small lineup with a lot of ball handlers because of the pressure they were putting on us in the back court. I needed guys who could get by.
“Defensively, they basically have five wings out there. I have four good ball handlers who are all fighting for one spot so I got to give them all a little bit of love today and let all of them play and two of them, it was the first game they’ve played this year, Carson Yee and Dowon Kim. I felt we were rushed in that first quarter with that pressure and now you got guys comfortable handling the ball and we could stretch them out and now we could find Dylan around the basket. We did a better job of finding him.
“It’s a fun team with the flexibility that we have.”
Warren (0-1) was led by Tremond Johnson with 17 points and Aaron Strings with 14 points.
Beckman also got strong efforts from Aaman Soma who had nine and Shubh Khandhadia who had 8 points.
“I think we started off a little slow and we let our pressure get to us,” Thoerner said. “And then we had a lot of turnovers. In the second half, we really cut down on the turnovers and started taking it to them more and we were able to get lay-ups and kind of get on a roll.”
Thoerner and his teammates have set high goals.
“This year, our goal is to win league, that’s definitely the big picture goal and try and make a run for the playoffs and see what happens,” Thoerner said.
“I thought we really played well in the second half,” Khandhadia added. “It was a really fast pace game and those guys really like to push the ball a lot but we did a really good job of handling their pressure. They throw a lot of traps at us but I thought our guards did a really good job of just keeping the game calm.
“We’ve done well so far with our pool. The first game against El Segundo was really tough but we were able to pull that one out and then this one was much better for us.”
“First half we didn’t do as well, we had a lot of turnovers, but in the second half, we limited our turnovers with zero turnovers in the fourth quarter which helped us get this (win),” Soma said. “Being able to take it to the rack and get finishes also helped us gain our lead. The first game was a tough one, but we pulled it out. The second game was pretty tough in the beginning but we collected our composure and we pulled it off.”
Beckman opened the tournament Monday with a 48-45 victory over El Segundo. Thoerner led the Patriots with 23 points.
               STATS
BECKÂ Â Â Â Â 07Â Â 21Â Â Â 13Â Â Â 18Â Â Â –Â Â 59
WARÂ Â Â Â Â 09Â Â 17Â Â Â Â 13Â Â Â 07Â Â Â –Â Â 46
BECKMAN: Thoerner 25, Khandhadia 8, Soma 9, Muller 5, Bozzo 2, Kalebi 4, Shintani 5, Yee 1.
WARREN: James 2, Strings 14, Johnson 17, Lozano 10, Lewis 3
Three-pointers: Beckman, Thoerner, Khandhadia and Shintani (1 each); Warren, Johnson, Lozano (2).
PLAYER TO WATCH: BECKMAN’S DYLAN THOERNER
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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