Mason Hodges of San Juan Hills goes up for a shot in Friday’s game. (Photos: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
San Juan Hills boys basketball team started out a little slow Friday in the opening round of the California Live Tournament.
But the Stallions picked up the pace and finished strong, defeating Palm Springs 66-54 at Woodbridge.
“We were down 10 or 11 to start,” said San Juan Hills Coach Jason Efstathiou. “We came out a little flat and they hit a few 3’s to start the game and we had to adjust a little bit to their offense and we started to get some stops.”
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Mason Hodges, a 6-6 sophomore, led the Stallions with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.
“Mason Hodges was one of our lead guys and Nathan Brosch was another one of our lead guys, they’re our two leading scorers from last season and they’re both back,” the coach said.
“And we saw some good rebounding and production from Jack Monarek and he also hit a couple of shots, all those guys brought it and started to pick it up defensively.
“At the beginning, we were really quiet, then we started to talk and make the switches we needed to make and got a little better.”
San Juan Hills returns to action Saturday at 9:30 a.m. vs. Diamond Bar on court two at Woodbridge.
“In this tournament, all we’re trying to go based off of what is kind of our foundation and play defense and move the ball and if we can do that then we will be on the right track and we can work on all the details when we get into practice (next week),” Efstathiou said.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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