It was a tale of two periods for the Skyline men’s basketball team, as they came up short in their 86-75 loss to Alameda College.
Skyline’s previous game against College of Marin was a complete blowout as the Trojans lost 85-55, but their home opener on Friday Nov. 11 could hardly have begun better with Skyline jumping out to a 45-34 lead at the half.
“We definitely played hard,” said Assistant Coach Eddy Harris. “I think there was great improvement from our game on Wednesday. The effort, without question, was much better.”
Even though Skyline had trouble all night driving the ball down low through Alameda’s seemingly impenetrable defense, in the first half that didn’t matter, as the Trojans seemed to be hitting most of their shots from the court.
Skyline sophomore Kyle Wong led the scoring for his team with an impressive 16 points on the night, though he tried to downplay his dominant performance.
“I felt like I could do a lot better,” Wong said. “More intensity, block down more shots. I always feel like you can play better.”
Wong’s teammates Marcus Chew, Joe Scott and Anthony Smith followed close behind in the scoring, combining for 40 of the Trojans’ 75 points and making a huge contribution to Skyline’s first half lead.
The team was also aggressive in controlling defensive zone rebounds and creating turnovers in the first half.
“I thought we came out with the right mindset, played hard and focused,” said Skyline Head Coach Justin Piergrossi. “I though we played great the first half.”
But midway through the second half, Alameda began heating up, sinking many of their attempts from 3-point range and getting breakaways on Skyline’s mistakes.
Meanwhile, a seemingly fatigued Trojans team was overwhelmed by the Alameda defense; coming up empty on rebounds and committing countless turnovers, not looking at all like the team that had started the game so strongly.
“We turned the ball over too much to win down the stretch,” Piergrossi said. “We can take care of the ball a little better.”
Kyle Wong echoed his coach’s assessment of the Trojans’ second period play.
“In the second half we sort of let our guard down,” Wong said. “We need to tighten that up.”
As the second half wore on, Alameda inched closer and closer to Skyline, eventually overtaking them and then widening the lead in the game’s closing minutes.
In the end, the Trojans’ second period slip was due, in large part, to the team’s extreme youth and relative inexperience according to Eddy Harris.
“We’re a very young team and we have a lot to work on,” said Harris. “We can improve on almost every facet.”
Eleven freshman make up the bulk of the Skyline team, with only three sophomores.
“We have a number of guys that did not play competitive basketball last year,” Coach Piergrossi said. “So it’s going to take them some time, as a team, to come together.”
Yet having a young team, according to Coach Harris, means that there is the possibility for great potential, a lot of which the Trojans’ displayed against Alameda.
“That’s kind of the exciting part about it,” Harris said. “If they keep working hard like they have been, they’re definitely going to improve.”
Kyle Wong was taken out of the game after going down on a play late in the second half of the game. He limped off the court with any injury that was later determined to be a sprained ankle. Wong hardly seemed worried, though.
“I’ll be fine,” he said. “It’s just a slight sprain.”
The Trojans’ are also expecting an added boost from starter, Nate Gartrell who was absent from the game on Friday, instead fulfilling his duties as the best man at his brother’s wedding.
The Trojans will play Cabrillo College on Friday, Nov.18 at 7 p.m. in Aptos before hosting back-to-back games against Gavilan College and Napa Valley College on Nov. 23 and Nov. 30.
To see highlights of the Trojans’ first game at home, click here.
To watch the interview with Head Coach Justin Piergrossi, click here
