Scott Everman scored a career-high 24 points, and San Marcos capitalized on a depleted Dos Pueblos back court by stealing the ball 14 times en route to a 55-44 Channel League basketball win over the Chargers at a packed Sovine Gym in Friday.
The Royals’ victory, combined with Buena’s 51-44 loss to Ventura, puts them in sole possession of second place in the standings at 5-5. Buena is 5-6. Dos Pueblos fell to 4-7 in league.
With Dos Pueblos concentrating on containing Elijah Johnson and Bryce Ridenour, Everman stepped up and provided scoring the Royals sorely needed in the physical contest. He scored on short jumpers, drives to the hoop and hit a 3-pointer. He made 7 of 12 shots from the floor. He also got to the free-throw line, where he made 9 of 11 attempts.
Point guard Christian Widmer also had a good scoring night with 12 points.
“I thought we got a little bit of our joy back. It looked like we were having fun out there,” said San Marcos coach Dave Odell about his team’s performance. “We were doing things we can do; the press kind of gave us some energy. We got a pretty good game out of Bryce, which we hadn’t seen in a long time. And, Scott really stepped up. When (DP) went to a triangle and two, we needed to get offense from the other guys and Scott provided that for us, as did Christian Widmer.”
Dos Pueblos was shorthanded at the guard spot as Jayson Williams and Anthony Trujillo were sidelined with injuries. That made the Chargers vulnerable against an aggressive San Marcos defense.
A sequence of four straight turnovers by the Chargers enabled San Marcos to open up a 35-26 lead in the third quarter. The mistakes negated a nice comeback by DP. It trailed 16-7 early in the second quarter and went ahead 20-19 on an offensive rebound by Nathan Johnson.
The Chargers trailed by two at halftime (25-23), and by one (27-26) after an Erik Olson 3-pointer early in the third period.
Everman followed with his 3-pointer and Widmer scored after a turnover to make it 31-26. Tyson Miller stole the ball on the press and scored on a layup and Ridenour made a steal and layup to put the Royals up by nine.
San Marcos expanded its lead to 50-34 as the 6-6 Everman sank 5 of 6 free throws, made a two-point basket and a trey.
“In the third round of league, it seemed all the teams were sort of singling in on Bryce and Elijah,” Everman said. “So coach was asking for somebody else to step up and I feel like when they went to the triangle and two it gave some opportunities, and I was able to be smart and aggressive and take them.”
DP coach Joe Zamora felt Everman was a difference maker in the game.
“Everman probably had his best game in the Channel League season this year. He really shot the ball well. We held Elijah in check and I felt we held Ridenour in check, but some other guys stepped up for them. That was big.”
Ridenour spearheaded the San Marcos defense with five blocked shots and six steals.
Olson scored 12 points and Dayne Gardiner added 11 for Dos Pueblos.
