Glendale Community College men’s basketball looks impressive in home opener
GLENDALE — If the Glendale Community College men’s basketball team continues to play as it did in its home opener on Thursday, this might turn into one heck of a season.
“That’s one in a million,” said Glendale Coach Ben Beauchemin. “We did a lot of things right.”
Hitting shots both inside and out, dominating on defense and hustling after loose balls, Glendale overwhelmed visiting Santa Barbara City College to the tune of a resounding 105-52 victory.
After falling behind, 10-0, to start the game, Glendale went on a 56-4 run to close out the first half up, 56-14. The team extended its lead to as much as 61 (88-27) before cruising to the blowout victory.
“We went on a run there,” Beauchemin said. “It was pretty impressive. ... That’s gratifying because you work hard in practice and you don’t know if it’s going to turn out that way.”
The stat line makes for an impressive read. Glendale had 28 assists and eight turnovers (just two in the first half); out rebounded its opponent, 40-21; shot 59 percent from the field; and held Santa Barbara to just 30% shooting.
“We were just clicking,” said Glendale’s Emmet Duvall. “We picked up the intensity and just all got on the same page and picked up the intensity.”
Duvall had 18 points, nine rebounds and three assists in just 24 minutes. Gor Plavchyan led all scorers with 23 points in 24 minutes to go with four blocks and three boards and Emerson Castaneda had 20 points in just 16 minutes.
Twelve Glendale players saw action, nine of them scoring, five in double figures. Coming off the bench, Nick Kahn had 16 points and six rebounds and Sammy Darling added 10 points.
Early on, it looked as if Glendale hadn’t realized its season had started as Santa Barbara jumped out to a 10-0 advantage. Then Castaneda caught fire, scoring 11 of his team’s first 13 points, including three buckets from beyond the arc. Glendale never looked back.
“I guess because it’s our first game, we were kind of nervous,” Castaneda said. “We got comfortable throughout the game. We knew what to do and what not to do. We got our nerves out of the way and started to play basketball.”
Beauchemin said the performance was gratifying. Duvall credited work done in practice to make Glendale look in mid-season form for its first game.
“I think the hard practices,” Duvall said. “We just try to have that good team chemistry so we’re on the same page.”