Warrior Basketball
Warrior guard Corey Torres dribbles around a Golden Valley-Bakersfield defender in non-league basketball action last week in the THS gym.
Torres finished the game with four points while the Bulldogs went on to defeat the Warriors, 88-82, in overtime. Photo by Mike Duffy, The Tehachapi News
Posted by Tom Shea, The Tehachapi News, on January 12, 2010 Warriors Roll To Victories
League Play To Begin Next Week
With only one pre-season game remaining on their schedule, the Warriors seem primed and ready to compete for a league championship this season.
Tehachapi (11-6) defeated No. 24 section ranked El Diamante (59-55) this past week, and Kern Valley (67-57) this past Friday, while also going the distance with No. 11 section ranked Golden Valley (88-82) in overtime.
"Overall we're playing well right now," said head coach Chris Olofson. "I think even though we lost to Golden Valley, we showed that we can compete in the top tier. We have high expectations to do well every time we take the court."
Mountain Basketball nearly pulled off a huge comeback victory over Golden Valley last Monday. Down by 12 points with less than two minutes remaining, the Warriors used a combination of full-court presses and fouls to tie the game before regulation expired.
Jordan Beardsley, who finished the game with 17 points, registered a key and-one with seconds remaining to force the extra period.
Other high scorers for the game included Christian Torres with 25 points, including seven three pointers, Cory Lange with 17 points, Corey Torres with four points and Travis Farewell and Nick Buttcane each with a basket. "We wanted to pull out that win at home, but we had to claw back by sending them to the (free-throw) line and that put us in foul trouble (in overtime)," added Olofson. "But it was a good effort, and a good week for us overall."
Closing out the week, the Warriors stunned El Diamante with an upset win last Tuesday, highlighted by a thunderous dunk by Cory Lange in the third quarter that gave Tehachapi a 14-9 advantage in the period and the eventual four-point win.
Lange, who is only a sophomore, also had another breakaway dunk in the win against Kern Valley, finishing with 30 points combined against the Broncs and Miners.
Also scoring against El Diamante was Corey Torres with 10 points, Dougan Patience with nine points, Robert Siegmund and Christian Torres with five points, and Jordan Beardsley with two points.
Christian Torres had 14 points against Kern Valley, while Dougan Patience had nine points, Matt Santos had seven points, Dallas Scaggs and Robert Siegmund six points, and Travis Farewell four points.
"We have one more pre-season game to go and then we start league. We're excited about it. We like where are at as a team right now," Olofson said. "It will be competitive and we have to make sure that we're ready to play all four quarters, every game."
Tehachapi will have their final pre-season game of the year this Tuesday at home against Bakersfield Adventist at 5:30 p.m., and open up league play at Wasco this Friday.