Hart Leaves Morro Bay With a Bad Taste, 75-43

The Morro Bay High basketball team traveled about 200 miles to Newhall on Tuesday because its coach, Rich Cavazos, wanted his charges to get a taste of some strong Southern California competition.

The Pirates, however, were treated to much more than they could swallow and Cavazos, angry at his team’s sluggish play, yanked his starting five midway through the third quarter.

“We came out here and didn’t really realize what we had gotten ourselves into,” Cavazos said.

Fueled by a shooting exhibition in the first half, Hart trounced the Pirates, 75-43, in a nonleague game at College of the Canyons.

Hart (10-1), off to its fastest season in several years, opened a 22-8 lead in the first period. Randy Roa scored 10 of his game-high 19 points in that span to spark the Indians, who trailed only in the opening minutes.

Hart shooters were near-perfect in the first half, converting 16 of 22 shots (73%) from the field. Morro Bay was nine of 25 (36%) before intermission and missed eight of those shots underneath the basket.

Morro Bay (4-5) however, managed to pull within 11 points when Matt Gedney hit a three-point basket at the halftime buzzer.

But it got ugly for the Pirates after the break.

They turned the ball over six times in the first five minutes of the third period, and Hart capitalized on each turnover to help fuel a 14-2 run.

Cavazos then emptied his bench and let his starters watch the reserves play until late in the fourth period.

Hart Coach Mike May was happy to see the Indians stay intense despite Morro Bay’s inability to compete.

“Defense always creates our game,” May said. “I thought we stepped it up a bit in the second half.”

Indeed. Hart outscored Morro Bay, 41-20, in the third and fourth quarters and the Indians played with only two starters for 12 minutes during that time.

Ronnie Valenzuela scored 13 points for Hart, followed by Cody Patterson with 10.