Cold defeat up north

Brad Manivong, Reporter 12/16/2011

U-PREP’s entire Junior Varsity squad including both boys and girls traveled to Etna, California this last weekend (December 8-10). The JV guys did not perform to their full potential in the three games they played. They did not make it into the top four partly because they were missing their coach.

Unfortunately the Coach Kaukonen was not able to travel with the guys to the tournament because of some personal priorities that needed to be taken care of. So Coach Wade (JV girls assitant Coach) filled in for Kaukonen.

The boys decided to dedicate the tournament to their Coach. JV Captain Cameron Griffith (10) felt that it was “appropriate” and “important” to dedicate the tournament to Kaukonen. Cameron also felt that the team has made a “ton of progress” since the last tournament in Fall River.

The Panthers played Weed on Friday (12/9) at 1 P.M. They guys took an early lead on Weed and were winning by 12 but then started to fall apart. Matt Hatter (9) is a starting guard for U-PREP; he noticed that, “[we] like to bury ourselves into a hole and make a comeback.”

Sadly, in the fourth quarter the boys trailed by eight as the buzzer rang. The Panther boys faced their first defeat of the tournament and lost by eight. They would have to wait another six hours before they could play again.

In the meantime the team had some time to bond with each other. The two Panther teams were able to spend some quality time together before their second game against Yreka.

After they had some time to digest their food the boys went back to the gym to mentally prepare for the game against Yreka. While in the locker room Salem Goodson (9) likes to chew gum before the game because it “helps him focus for the game.”

From the beginning of tip off U-PREP was slow to get going. Yreka immediately took advantage of this started the game with a fast break. The entire first half U-PREP was being dominated by Yreka because UPREP were not boxing out very well. In the end, Yreka defeated U-PREP and the the boys went home unsatisfied because they suffered a large loss.

The third and final game for U-PREP’s JV was a must-see event. The Panther JV were about to get some revenge on Yreka’s Freshmen. Although U-PREP was down by eight during the whole game, Cameron Griffith (10) brought the Panthers from down under by making two three pointers to put U-PREP into overtime. During the game U-PREP had five players foul out.

After an intense quarter of overtime the Panthers were still tied up and the game went into double-overtime. Fans on both sides were going crazy inside of Etna’s gym; the entire gym was completely filled and had people standing inside the entrance watching.

Finally, the game came down the free throws. Austin Brown (9) sunk one of his two shots to put the Panthers over the top.

Cameron Griffith was nominated MVP of the tournament because of his stellar playing and leadership for the Panthers. The boys hope to perform well in their next tournament in Burney (December 15-17).