EMPIRE LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Katella Sees Room for Improvement Despite Victory
A 21-point margin of victory is usually enough to keep winning coaches smiling. But not Katella’s Tom Danley, who seemed pained after a 63-42 blowout of El Dorado Friday night at Katella.
Something about the Knights’ inconsistency kept Danley from fully appreciating an overpowering show of force.
“We’ve played well in about four, five, maybe six games this season, but other than that I thought we’ve played helter-skelter,” Danley said.
Sloppy is another way of describing Katella’s victory. The Knights’ attention seemed to falter at times, but perhaps that was due to the wide margin. Besides, El Dorado wasn’t exactly keeping the fans riveted, what with all those missed shots and bad passes.
Katella scored the game’s first eight points, led by 32-21 by halftime and held El Dorado to a three-point third quarter. Katella’s largest lead was 32 points.
Kevin Carlson scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds and Nick Roditis and LaByron Clayton each added 10 points for the Knights.
Clayton is a sophomore forward who was playing only his third varsity game. He had been a starter on the junior varsity.
Eight of the nine Knights who played scored.
The victory tightened Katella’s hold on third place and raised its record to 15-5, 4-2 in the Empire League. El Dorado’s playoff hopes are quickly slipping away. The fourth-place Golden Hawks are 7-14, 2-4.
The results should have left Danley pleased, but he’s still hoping Katella can make a run at the league championship. To do that, the Knights probably will have to defeat Esperanza and Los Alamitos. And to accomplish that, the Knights must play with more consistency and intensity, according to Danley.
“We’re a pretty decent team if we put it all together,” he said. “If we play well we can play with anybody. We still haven’t peaked. We’ve played some pretty good ballgames, but we’re a much better team than we’ve shown in league play.”
The Knights looked pretty strong at times on Friday, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy Danley.
There was no denying that there was never a moment when the Knights were not in control, however. They even won the opening tip.
Carlson was too strong and too quick for El Dorado. A 6-foot-6 senior center, Carlson was too strong for the Hawks’ quicker post players and too fast for their wide bodies.
John Simonsen had seven points to lead El Dorado, further evidence of Katella’s domination Friday.
In other league games:
Esperanza 49, Cypress 43--Leading-league Esperanza (16-5, 6-0) tied a school record with its ninth consecutive victory. The Aztecs, ninth-ranked in Orange County, were led by Marcus Jones, who had 17 points.
Bart Boulton led Cypress (8-12, 1-5) with 18 points.
Los Alamitos 81, Loara 55--Steve Carbone had 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists and Tim Lin had 16 points and nine assists for host Los Alamitos (17-4, 5-1). The Griffins, 10th-ranked in the county and the league’s second-place team, outscored Loara, 50-26, in the second half.
Loara is 5-15, 0-6.