Highlanders can’t enjoy moment in Petco blowout

By ECS Staff
Updated: December 2, 2015

By Chris Davis

© East County Sports.com
SAN DIEGO (12-2-15) — The Helix Highlanders’ shooting was actually cooler than the weather at Petco Park in downtown San Diego where the game was the final contest on Tuesday (Dec. 1) as part of the Bill Walton Basketball Festival.

The La Jolla Vikings ran out and hid from the Highlanders (0-1) as they scored a 55-30 victory to open the schedule.

“We are very inexperienced and we haven’t had a lot of practice,” veteran head coach JOHN SINGER said on the infield at Petco Park after the contest.

Of course, when you fail to shoot 25 percent, the chances of you winning go down quickly.

The game started out with La Jolla’s Eddie Parker hitting his first two shots, which were both from long distance. That coupled with a monstrous dunk by Reed Farley to make it 8-0 not more than two minutes into the game boosted the score even more. By the time the first quarter had ended it was 16-5 in La Jolla’s favor.

The second quarter wasn’t much better as Helix went 0-5 from the field, but did make two of the three chances from the charity stripe. The Vikings however put in 18 points to make it 34-7 at the break, with many in attendance thinking that there was a possibility of a running-clock situation by the time the fourth quarter rolled around.

The second half was completely different. Helix put nine on the board in the third and 23 points in the final quarter, compared to La Jolla’s eight in the third stanza and 13 in the final eight minutes.

BRANDYN PARKER led the Highlanders with eight points (all in the fourth quarter). MALIK TOMBWE had six points, MARVIN ROBERTS chipped in four points, CAMERON MUTTER added a three-pointer and AMARI GREEN, ERIC RODRIGUEZ and JUSTIN FLISHER each scored two points to complete the scoring.

“We’ll get better,” coach Singer stated. “We are hoping for four kids to come over from football after their season is over. But none of that matters if you don’t play hard and we didn’t play hard tonight. We just stood around tonight. They were either uptight, nervous, both, but whatever. Second half, sure the game was over, but we played harder.”

“These kids probably don’t even get it,” coach Singer said about playing at the ballpark. “It is a great experience. I mean look at the surroundings – it’s great. I don’t think they are thinking of that now. I think they are thinking of the loss.”

Eastlake, another tough game, is the second game on the schedule and there is no time to wallow in this loss as the Titans are waiting to play tonight at the Hilltop Tournament at 6 p.m.

Helix: Brandyn Parker 8 (2 reb, 3 stl), Malik Tambwe 6 (4 reb, 1 stl), Marvin Roberts 4 (2 reb, 1 stl, 1 blk), Justin Flisher 2 (5 reb, 1 ast, 2 blk), Cameron Mutter 3, Jumar Wynn 3 (1 reb), Amari Green 2 (2 reb, 1 ast, 3 stl), Eric Rodriguez 2, Ilyas Beltz (1 reb).