Capo Valley opens season with 41-34 victory over Godinez at Grizzly Invitational

Capo Valley’s Conner Gleason is guarded by Robert Aquino of Godinez Tuesday night at the Grizzly Invitational.

Capistrano Valley’s boys basketball team opened the season Tuesday night with a 41-34 victory over Godinez at the Grizzly Invitational.

Connor Gleason (12 points) and Riley McNair (11 points) led Capo Valley. Godinez (1-2) was led by Andrew Valdez, who had 14 points and David Miramontes, who had 10 points.

In the low scoring first half, Capo Valley led Godinez 21-9.

Godinez got untracked in the third quarter outscoring Capo Valley 11-10 but the Cougars were able to finish the game out strong.

“I think we wore out a little bit and didn’t play the defense that we played early in the game,” said Capo Valley Coach Brian Mulligan. “We had a little trouble putting the ball in the hole, but we’re willing to get after it.”

Mulligan knows what his team has to do this month.

“We want to survive until Christmas and then just keep progressing as offensive players,” he said. “We’re just a little anemic offensively. We can defend, but we miss a lot of layups.”

Capo Valley has only three players returning from last year’s team. The Cougars will welcome three transfers who will become eligible later this season, Mulligan said.

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com