Eagles’ Ellis gets win over former MV teammate Tully

By ECS Staff
Updated: January 3, 2016

2015-16 EAST COUNTY PREP BOYS BASKETBALL

By Chris Davis
© East County Sports.com

SPRING VALLEY (1-3-16) — In a game that was more reminiscent of a Grossmont Valley League contest than the non-conference game that it was, the Olympian High Eagles defeated the Monte Vista Monarchs 49-46.

The Eagles, who are coached by a Monarch Alumni MARTY ELLIS, started out slow but picked it up when it mattered the most.

BO RANKINS led the Monarchs (5-10) with 14 points in the loss.

“It was a good game and it is always nice to see (Marty),” Monte Vista head coach, and former teammate of Ellis’, MIKE TULLY said. “We had a lot of opportunities and the kids need to learn from this. There are some simple fundamental things that we need to work on.”

The Monarchs came out on fire going up 15-10 in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Monarchs lost some focus and turned the ball over a couple too many times that allowed the Eagles to pull within two points at the break, 28-26.

The second half saw the fans get rather ruckus and it was more of a playoff game atmosphere than an early January game.

The Eagles came out and started applying pressure on the defensive end. It led to a 39-36 lead at the end of 24 minutes of action.

Both teams had a chance to win the game as the Monarchs had a one point lead with about 45 seconds left. With 23.8 seconds left the Eagles took the lead. Two free throws with less than a second sealed the deal for the Eagles.

“We missed some really good shots inside tonight. The game could have gone either way,” Tully stated.

Monte Vista: Bo Rankins 14 (5 reb, 3 stl, 1 ast), Shai Stevenson 11 (4 reb, 1 stl), Deondre McHayle 7 (8 reb, 3 stl, 4 ast), Kelton Vun 6 (1 reb, 1 stl, 1 ast, 1 blk), Tre Owens 5 (2 reb, 2 stl, 2 ast), Tre Koita 2, Adrian Bass 1 (4 reb, 2 stl).