Road warrior Braves rally late for win at Santana

By ECS Staff
Updated: January 16, 2016

Ronne Readus, of El Cajon Valley, rejects at Santana shot Friday night in Santee.

2015-16 EAST COUNTY PREP BOYS BASKETBALL

By Adam Paul

© East County Sports.com

SANTEE (1-16-16) — In Grossmont Valley League opening night action Friday (Jan. 15), El Cajon Valley took on the Santana Sultans and pulled an upset by knocking off the Sultans in a 67-57 victory.

It was a close game the whole way as both teams couldn’t pull away as they went neck and neck, each scoring 15 in the first quarter. Both teams would pull out pretty much the same result in the second as the Braves were able to outscore the Sultans 19-18 and lead 35-34 at the break.

The second half started with both teams looking to gain some sort of momentum and interestingly enough it was the Sultans who were able to grab it and lead. For the Sultans it was different because in the past the third quarter wasn’t kind to them but this time they were able to outscore the Braves 17-9 to lead 50-43.

Leading the charge for the Sultans was floor general FRANKIE GUTIERREZ who rolled a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds. Other Sultans having a hand in things were DAULTON BARRY who put up 10 points and ANTHONY ROMERO who chipped in with 12 points.

With things looking up for the Sultans they had to be thinking positive as they were able to survive the treacherous third quarter. However, the Braves had other ideas as their big man RONNE READUS had his usual double-double of 23 points to go along with his 18 rebounds and he swatted 5 Sultan shots. Helping him was AHMAD SULYMAN who torched the Sultans for 24 points including 5 treys and they had more help as HUSSEIN AL-ANZEI chipped in with 10 points.

Despite the scoring spree of both Readus and Sulyman the Braves would find themselves trailing by 8 points with about 5 minutes to go in the contest. This is when the whole game changed as the Braves were able to put the clamps down defensively and crash the boards, which created an 18-point swing in their favor in which they were able to outscore the Sultans 24-7 in the final stanza.

“In the fourth our defense started to click and we were able to finally get the rebounds,” said El Cajon Valley coach SCOTTY JAMES. “Once we stopped turning the ball over it was a completely different contest.”

El Cajon Valley: Ahmad Sulyman 24 (5 reb, 4 ast), Ronne Readus 23 (18 reb, 5 blk), Hussein Al-anzei 10 (3 reb), Jeremiah Davis 8 (6 reb, 2 blk), Dmir Witherspoon 2 (3 reb).

Santana: Frankie Gutierrez 12 (10 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl), Anthony Romero 12 (5 reb, 4 stl), Daulton Barry 10 (3 reb), Mitchell Miller 7 (5 reb, 3 ast, 5 stl), Trent Baugh 7 (2 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl), Noah Nunez 4 (2 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl), John Bobof 3 (1 ast), Cooper Mendoza 2 (2 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl).