Coach Motivates Canyon

When Canyon Coach Rob Alexander picked up the pairings Monday and saw his team was opening the Southern Section Division II-AA playoffs against Los Amigos, a team the Comanches had defeated by 42 points to start the season, he knew motivating his team would be the key.

So Alexander gave Canyon some smaller goals to accomplish, knowing each of those would add up to a victory. One by one the Comanches produced in each area, which led to a 77-44 victory over Los Amigos Wednesday at Canyon High.

“One of our things was to try and motivate them, try to get them to play hard no matter what the score is,” Alexander said. “We talked about outscoring them every quarter. We talked about what we are going to limit them to defensively. We wanted to be more focused on Canyon than what Los Amigos does.”

Canyon (19-9), which will play top-seeded Compton (23-5) in the first round Friday, was also a different team at the beginning of the season, or at least looked at differently. The Comanches were ranked ninth in the county in the preseason polls and were expected to stroll through the Century League.

But their season started to fall apart about the time league play began. Canyon went 5-5 in league play and barely made the playoffs. Los Amigos Coach Don Grable also said his team looked at the Comanches differently this time around.

“Last time we were intimidated the whole game,” Grable said. “At least this time we were intimidated in the first quarter and then we started playing a little bit.”

Canyon did start the game fast, scoring the first 13 points and led, 19-4, after the first quarter. Roger Hogan hit two of his five three-pointers in the first minute and Drew Gaulden had two two-handed dunks in the initial run.

Gaulden, who has committed to New Mexico, sat out the first two minutes of the game because he missed practice over the weekend while attending the New Mexico-Nevada Las Vegas game Friday in Las Vegas. Alexander knew beforehand that Gaulden would miss practice, which would force the 6-9 center to miss starting Wednesday.

“We knew ahead of time it was going to happen. He knew the consequences, everything was fine,” Alexander said. “He’s a great kid. He’s a starter on anybody’s team in Orange County, but you got to stick to the rules no matter who it is.”

The Lobos (12-17) had a decent second quarter, only getting outscored, 18-15. But Hogan hit his fourth three-pointer of the game and Gaulden made two in a row from beyond the arc to put the Comanches up by 25.

Gaulden, who finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds, made a short jumper late in the third quarter to give Canyon a 52-26 lead, then he and the rest of the starters were done for the night.

“I’m glad we’re back to playing well,” Gaulden said. “We played really well in the preseason and everyone was noticing us, but I think we were really underestimated in the playoff draw.”