I caught the second half
of Desert Vista's first loss of the season. They fell to Loyola Academy out of
Illinois. The Thunder were trailing by multiple buckets for most of the half
but kept fighting against a disciplined team. Loyola had nearly all its points
coming from two players, and at one point late in the half Gregg pointed out
that all but three shot attempts came from those two players. Eventually DV did
a better job of locking up on those players which helped them stay in the game.
They had multiple
opportunities to tie or take the lead in the closing minutes, but some costly
missed shots and turnovers kept them trailing. Loyola also did a good job of
not letting them get second chance attempts.
They had the ball for a
full court inbounds play with 0.7 seconds left but the pass was too high and
hit the ceiling. DV lost 51-52.
Senior
Brandon Clarke once again showed that he is a very efficient scorer around the
basket.
Junior
guard Tarik Cool was more impactful than the last time I saw DV play. He is a
pretty lengthy 6-foot-1 and showed good ball control. He needs to be careful
going up for floaters, as he was caught with a couple back to back charges when
he could have just pulled up and knocked down a midrange jumper.
Sophomore
Caleb Simmons showed me some range to his shot with a three ball from a couple
feet behind the arc. He has upside and with all the playing time he is getting
he should only get better over the years.
of Desert Vista's first loss of the season. They fell to Loyola Academy out of
Illinois. The Thunder were trailing by multiple buckets for most of the half
but kept fighting against a disciplined team. Loyola had nearly all its points
coming from two players, and at one point late in the half Gregg pointed out
that all but three shot attempts came from those two players. Eventually DV did
a better job of locking up on those players which helped them stay in the game.
They had multiple
opportunities to tie or take the lead in the closing minutes, but some costly
missed shots and turnovers kept them trailing. Loyola also did a good job of
not letting them get second chance attempts.
They had the ball for a
full court inbounds play with 0.7 seconds left but the pass was too high and
hit the ceiling. DV lost 51-52.
Senior
Brandon Clarke once again showed that he is a very efficient scorer around the
basket.
Junior
guard Tarik Cool was more impactful than the last time I saw DV play. He is a
pretty lengthy 6-foot-1 and showed good ball control. He needs to be careful
going up for floaters, as he was caught with a couple back to back charges when
he could have just pulled up and knocked down a midrange jumper.
Sophomore
Caleb Simmons showed me some range to his shot with a three ball from a couple
feet behind the arc. He has upside and with all the playing time he is getting
he should only get better over the years.
