Rio Mesa Loses Second Straight

How quickly things change.

The Rio Mesa High boys’ basketball team began the week riding an 11-game winning streak, but the Spartans fell to Dos Pueblos, 65-53, Friday night in a Channel League game at Oxnard for their second consecutive loss.

The loss dropped Rio Mesa (14-5, 8-2 in league play) into a tie for first place with Dos Pueblos (14-8, 8-2) and followed a 77-68 loss to Oxnard on Wednesday.

“I knew at the start of the week that we could very easily lose these two games,” Rio Mesa Coach Steve Wolf said. “I could tell that we just weren’t practicing as well and as hard as we had been earlier in the season.”

Was Rio Mesa--6-8 in league play last season--over confident because of its early season success?

“I don’t think so,” Wolf said. “I think they’re playing not to lose instead of playing to win like they were earlier in the season.”

Whatever the reasons, Rio Mesa shot miserably Friday night.

The Spartans made only 20 of 59 shots and went scoreless for nearly 4 1/2 minutes during a stretch that began late in the third quarter and lasted until midway through the fourth.

During that time, the Spartans’ deficit went from 51-38 to 57-38 before Tyrone Nunnery made a three-point basket with 3:54 left.

Rio Mesa closed the gap to 57-44 with 3:30 remaining when Farhaad Azimi made another three-point shot, but the Spartans mini-run ended after that.

The Dos Pueblos victory avenged a 65-50 loss to Rio Mesa in the first round of league play and helped take some of the sting out of the Chargers’ 40-39 upset loss to Hueneme on Thursday.

“We didn’t know who they had the first time we played them,” Dos Pueblos guard Tafari Pipersburg said. “This time we just tried to keep Nunnery under control.”

Pipersburg scored nine points, all in the third quarter. Teammates Dillon Mooney and Dan Hoefer had 16 and 15 points, respectively.

Scott Fujita led Rio Mesa with 16 points and eight rebounds and Nunnery had 11 points.

The Spartans trailed, 38-27, after making 10 of 27 shots from the field in the first 16 minutes.

Dos Pueblos made 16 of 25 first-half shots, but committed 10 turnovers.