Coyote basketball opens season with second straight home win

Eduardo Miranda

The Daily Independent

After a 69-54 home debut win over Bakersfield College last Friday, the No. 14 Cerro Coso men's basketball team welcomed No. 15 Southwestern in a non-conference matchup. After two halves of strong play on both ends of the court with a mix of undisciplined defense that led to many fouls in favor of the visitors, the Coyotes held off the Jaguars for a 74-63 win.

"A win is a win," said head coach Chris Dugan on winning his second straight home game. "I thought we defended really well in the first half when we don't foul and rebound. I call my guys 'Winnie the Pooh.' It's like the analogy of Winnie the Pooh always wants to put his hand in the honey jar, and that's what we do. Our hands are always in the honey jar, and we reach and we don't make guys make shots. We need to get more disciplined, and if we rebound and defend, if we don't foul, they score maybe 50 points. But again, a win is a win. This is a different team. I think everyone who sees us play knows we are not as athletic up and down, but we have a good formula to be successful."

The Coyotes finished the game shooting 42 percent from 59 attempts, 38.5 percent from the three-point line on 13 attempts, and 76 percent from the free-throw line on 25 attempts. The Coyotes finished with three scoring in the double digits, led by Anthony Edouard, who had a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds with seven on the offensive end. Tzhari Trevino led the team with 20 points off the bench, and Jaylen Ayala had 10 points.

The Coyotes finished with 31 total rebounds with 12 on the offensive board and 19 defensives. They had 12 assists, eight steals and three blocks, but committed 11 turnovers. Edouard led the team with 13 rebounds and Trent Gordon had eight with three on the offensive end. Jason Morris led the team with three assists with Gavin Flowers, Ayala, Trevino, and Edouard all having two each. Edouardo led the team with two blocks, and Jon Leggett had one.

The Coyotes' ability to grab rebounds helped them to build an early 14-point lead in the first half, and even when the team struggled on the offensive end, it kept the visitors from making a run. Dugan spoke on his team's rebounding especially on the offensive glass and need to be disciplined on both the offensive and defensive ends.

"Trent and Anthony Edouard are great offensive rebounders," the Coyotes coach said. "We work on it every single day defensively and offensively. They are going because they are taught to go. We need to do a better job when we get an offensive rebound to get strong and then kick it out. They are doing a great job with that, and they probably had eight to 10 offensive rebounds because we are not a great shooting team.

"That is the biggest thing, discipline, offensively and defensively. Offensively, they are trying to figure out what is a good shot and what is a bad shot. Local kid AJ McLaughlin is out with a hurt ankle and that really hurts us because he understands our system and is a good shooter. A transfer tonight from Palo Verde started and made some shots offensively, which was nice. We will be fine in December. My other teams, once we started running stuff, cutting up, and executing we will be fine."

In the first half, the Coyotes' offense relied on its ball movement to run the offense and create open shots. The Coyotes began the game with a 16-5 run with crisp ball movement leading to open looks in the corners and attacking the lane for layups from Leggett, Gordon, Ayala, Flowers, Trevino, and Morris. The home team continued to dominate, building up to 27-16 lead after a corner three from Flowers leading to a timeout with seven minutes left in the half.

After the timeout, the Coyotes struggled to run the offense and get a good look or open look at the basket. They were forced deep into the shot clock on a few occasions, took contested jump shots, or committed turnovers that led to the Jaguars cutting the deficit. Almost two minutes passed until Trevino hit a three to put his team ahead 30-21.

During the dry spell, the Coyotes did crash the board on both ends to limit the chances Southwestern got and that kept the lead from disappearing.

After Trevino's three, the home team began to run the offense and create better chances, which led to a 41-27 halftime lead. In that first half the Coyotes had charges called in their favor.

The second half began with Leggett grabbing an offensive rebound and hitting a jump shot for a 43-29 lead. After the Jaguars scored, the Coyotes went on a 6-0 run with points from Edouard's layup, a layup from Morris, and an offensive rebound and layup from Edouard. The Coyotes continued to score but more importantly continued to dominate on the boards, which led to putback layups and even a dunk for Edouard and a 51-33 lead.

But during the second half, the Coyotes' defense was called for multiple reaching in fouls that allowed the Jaguars to score more points in the second half. The Coyotes' offense had moments where it flowed and created chances in the paint and on the perimeter, the offensive rebounding even gave them second and third chances to build up a 47-31 after a layup from Morris.

Coming out of a timeout, the home team went on a run with an offensive rebound putback from Edouard, followed by a baseline dunk on an inbound play to Edouard, Morris hitting two free throws, and Leggett scoring on a layup to lead 55-38 with 13:08 left in the game.

After that run, the Coyotes went cold for almost two minutes until Trevino scored two free throws. Morris and Trevino scored on layups and Edouard scored on a putback from an offensive rebound to build the lead up to 63-47. Gordon scored on a dunk and Edouard scored on a jump shot after a steal from Leggett. Edouard continued to dominate in the paint and scored on a layup and hit the free throw to complete the three-point play for a 70-55 lead. Ayala scored two from the charity stripe and Trevino hit a jump shot to secure a 74-63 home win.

Dugan was pleased with the win even though his team gave up 36 points in the second half. But what he was really pleased with was the huge turnout for their second home game and credits the women's team home debut for it.

"I definitely was happier with the turnout of this game then I was in game one," he said. "And also, I think a part of it was the women were here. Obviously, I'm excited for Keshawn Johnson to get his first home win, and the things he is doing and to have two really good programs together. We are both going to win a lot of games. He is a really good coach, and I just think overall it was nice to have a good turnout. And also too, you know, you have a bad outing, they catch us on a bad night, and they think Coso isn't that good. That happened a couple of years ago in the playoff when we got blown out of the gym. I thought we did a good job and still think we played a good brand of basketball. I still think we are enjoyable to watch."

The Coyotes continue the preseason participating in the Skip Robinson tournament on Thursday and Saturday. They will play Glendale on Thursday at 5 p.m., and Mt. San Antonio on Saturday at noon.