On Balance, Antelopes Too Strong

One way or another, the Antelope Valley High basketball team will beat you.

Like a pitcher throwing an inside pitch to set up an outside pitch, the Antelopes shoot three-pointers to set up layups, and stopping either is difficult.

Antelope Valley used a balanced attack to beat Royal, 79-68, in a nonleague game on Tuesday night.

“That’s a good little squad,” Royal Coach Larry Wiksell said of the Antelopes. “I give them a lot of credit. . . . You see them in warm-ups and they have no size and they look frail, then they come out and kick your. . . . “

The Antelopes pulled away in the first half with hot three-point shooting, making six of 11 in the half. They trailed, 16-9, before going on a 15-0 run that included three straight three-pointers. Antelope Valley (8-0) made five in a row in the half and took a 38-29 lead into the locker room.

“We knew they were going to be pretty good shooters outside, but I didn’t think they’d be shooting three or four feet behind the line,” Wiksell said. “You just don’t teach kids to guard them that deep.”

So Royal spread the floor to take away the three points. Antelope Valley then went inside. Of the Antelopes’ 13 second-half field goals, 12 were layups and one was a six-foot jumper.

“We run a five-man game with a lot of cuts to the three-point line and the basket,” Antelope Valley Coach Tom Mahan said. “When they defended the wing, we gave it to (Tony) Walker and (Joe) Glover at the hole.”

Walker, a sophomore, was playing only his third game since joining the basketball team from the Southern Section Division II championship football team. He scored a team-high 20 points.

“I didn’t expect him to be the player he is,” Wiksell said. “I had heard about him, but you make a sophomore prove himself. And he sure did.”

Glover scored 19 points, including three-of-five shooting from three-point range. He was eight for eight from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. Anthony Pruitt added 18 points.

Royal (7-3) was led by sophomore Ryan Nielsen’s 25 points.