Warriors Basketball
Warrior Jonny Saavedra, a senior, goes in for a layup in a recent game. Saavedra has been
the Warriors leading scorer throughout the 2015-16 basketball campaign. The 2016 Warriors finished
the regular season at 4-6 in league play; 12-14 for the season. The Warriors advanced to the CIF playoffs
hosting a game against Golden West of Visalia on September 23. (Photo by The Tehachapi News.)
Posted by John Nelson, The Tehachapi News, on Febuary 21, 2016 Boys Prep For CIF Hoops
Coming Off Season Ending Loss
Intensity is good. Emotions, maybe not so much.
That seems to be the situation the Warriors boys basketball team finds itself. Play with intensity and with focus.
“But I'm definitely trying to get them to put away their emotions,” head coach Louie Saavedra said.
That raw, uncontrolled emotion might have cost them their last game of the season, an 81-71 loss at home to West on Tuesday night, Feb. 16.
Despite the loss, the Warriors finished 12-14 overall and 4-6 in the South Yosemite League, good for fourth place.
When the CIF Central Section playoff draw was announced, the Warriors were seeded seventh in Division 3 and given a first-round home game against Golden West of Visalia on Tuesday, Feb. 23.
“At this point, I really know nothing at all about Golden West,” Saavedra said Sunday, Feb. 21, by telephone. “I've made some calls to coaches who've played them and left some emails, but I haven't heard back yet.”
On paper, Golden West appears to be a team much like the Warriors. The Trailblazers were 11-17 overall and 3-9 in the West Yosemite League.
Their only common opponent was Monache. Tehachapi beat Monache 71-50 in the Kern County Shootout in December. Golden West had a 60-53 preseason victory over Monache.
The Tehachapi-Golden West winner travels to West for the division quarterfinals on Thursday, Feb. 25.
The final three games of the season, and particularly the loss to West, demonstrated a weakness the Warriors need to correct, Saavedra said.
“Defensively, against West, we weren't rotating properly. We need better defensive transitions, and we certainly can't allow as many second-chance points,” the coach said.
In their last three games, the Warriors have allowed 70, 90 and 81 points — way too many, Saavedra admitted.
“A lot of that has to do with not having self discipline,” Saavedra said. “They still think they can out-jump everybody, and they can't. They have to settle down and play solid, fundamental defense.”
Still, the loss was an improvement over Tehachapi's last meeting with West, which drew the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the tournament. The Warriors lost 79-64 to West in January.
“We got behind 40-19 at halftime in that game, too,” Saavedra said, “but then we came back with 10 quick points in the second half.”
Jesus Sanchez led the Warriors against West with 20 points, and Jonny Saavedra had 11. Chris Llamas had 9, and Carson Bethany and Daniel Wight had 8 apiece.
The coach said his Warriors could have won it, too, if it hadn't been for one West player, No. 11 Austyn Conteras, who led all scorers with 28 points, including seven 3-pointers.
“If I could have gotten our guys to release all that emotion, then the only difference in that game between them and us would have been No. 11 getting hot,” Saavedra said.
“But it was senior night, our last home game, and emotions were running high.”