The Sobrato boys basketball team are off to a ferocious start, defeating Oak Grove and Andrew Hill to open South Division play in decisive fashion.
Sobrato opened its league season with a defensive gem that opened the door for a trio of stellar offensive performances as the Bulldogs routed Oak
Grove 59-38.
That was followed by a 74-31 win over Hill.
Sobrato will next host Leland on Friday at 7 p.m.
Sobrato vs Oak Grove
Sobrato held the Eagles to four field goals in the first half as the Bulldogs jumped out to a 24-16 lead at the half.
“They played a real good game defensively,” said coach Sean Tate. “They switched it up a lot, something we worked on in practice and they handled it pretty good out here. If we continue to play like that, we’re going to be in a lot of games.”
Kenzeddie Williams led the charge going for nine points coming out of halftime as he scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half.
That helped to spark a 35-point second half for the Bulldogs who improved to 8-3 overall (1-0).
Luke Walton hit 17 in the win, including draining four 3s with Jason Rhoads went for 14, including going for eight in the fourth quarter.
Tate said he was ecstatic to see all three players get rolling like they did.
He said there may have been a couple of games where all three had good games at the same time, but this was one of the first times he saw all three explode.
“Ken is our leading scorer but when you combine that with those two, you can’t keep doubling (Williams) because you can’t leave look and Jason will play inside out. It’s fun to watch,” Tate said.
Meanwhile Oak Grove was only down by 21 thanks to its effectiveness from the free throw line.
The Eagles went 15 for 20 from the line and had just two players make more than one field goal.
Oak Grove hit 10 field goals for the game, half of which came from two players.
“We were sitting on the bench just going, ‘man, they’re living off the line. They’re not getting anything,’” Tate said. “It was tough. We gave up some fouls early but for the most part, they were earning them from the line. We didn’t give up too much. They were living up there but they weren’t hitting buckets to tie that momentum into the free throw and that was a good thing.”
Se Jin Kim led the way with 11 points, hitting eight of those in the third quarter. TJ Benna followed with eight points, going 6-6 from the line.
Tate said Oak Grove wasn’t getting many easy looks nor were the Eagles getting many offensive rebounds for second chance points.
That allowed Sobrato to get moving in transition, which helped maintain the lead even when Sobrato’s offense wasn’t hitting through out the game.
“We let our defense lead into offense. Let our defense lead to transition so we don’t need to run an offense,” Tate said. “And that is usually a good night. We call that fun basketball.”
In the first half, with the exception of Walton hitting a couple of 3s in the first quarter, the Bulldogs were having trouble getting the ball to drop and turned it over 10 times.
Walton’s eight first quarter points led the team at the half.
Much like what kept Oak Grove afloat, free throws saves Sobrato in the second half by going 5-6 from the line.
But Sobrato’s foibles didn’t hurt the team thanks to the defense.
The Bulldogs turned the ball over 10 times but Oak Grove turned that into just five points.
The Eagles led 5-3 early in the game, but Sobrato went on a 10-0 scoring run to close things out.
Through the second quarter, Sobrato’s offense did just enough to keep the lead at eight, forcing Oak Grove into five turnovers to go into the break 24-16.
Then in the third quarter the offense finally caught up.
Sobrato dropped 18 in the frame led by Williams’ nine points and eight more from Walton.
The Bulldogs started the second half on an 11-2 run that took an eight-point game into a 17-point game.
Sobrato routs Hill
The Sobrato boys basketball team got double-figure scoring from three players against Hill in a 74-31 win on Jan. 6 as the Bulldogs jump out to a 2-0 South Division record.
The Bulldogs had 29 points in the second quarter alone and had scored 65 points through three quarters.
Meanwhile, Sobrato held Hill to four in the first quarter, 15 at half and 25 through three quarters.
It wasn’t until the fourth with a running clock did things even out.
Kolby Nguyen led with 15 points with Luke Walton scoring 12 and Kenzeddie Williams hitting 11. Jason Rhoads and Krubeal Negash both scored eight to round things out.
Sobrato will next host Leland 7 p.m. on Friday.
