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Warriors run Legionnaires off court

The Fallbrook High School basketball team appeared to be practicing layups during the first quarter of its game against Bonsall High School Dec. 6, and the easy hoops propelled the Warriors to a commanding lead they would maintain to the final buzzer.

Host Fallbrook led Bonsall 25-5 after the opening quarter and went on to post a 71-27 victory in the first varsity basketball game between the two schools.

Bonsall scored the first points of the game on a three-pointer but would only score only two more points (a pair of free throws) the remainder of the first quarter while being hounded by an aggressive Fallbrook defense.

The Warriors, capitalizing on their size advantage and quickness, drove to the basket for layups seven times in the opening quarter. Sophomore Joel Calhoun had three layups and a three-pointer to lead Fallbrook in first-quarter scoring with nine points.

Fallbrook sophomore Cooper Sherman had two layups in the opening stanza and was fouled hard on another attempt. He made both free throws to tally six points in the quarter.

Fallbrook began the second quarter with a 12-0 run to open up a 37-5 advantage. Junior Tommy Martin made a running jumper from short range and had a layup during the run, and teammates Sherman, Calhoun and Marquai Rudolph (two) also scored on layups during the sequence.

Rudolph put together a series of nice plays in the second quarter when he made a steal and went the length of the court for one of his layups and then added a blocked shot.

Crisp passing and good ball movement led to many of the Warriors' layups.

"We're still learning but I was very happy with how the ball moved in the first half," said Fallbrook head coach Ryan Smith. "We did a good job of running our offense. It was our best offensive output of the season so far."

Smith acknowledged the Warriors don't have a "big man" to post up in the key, so the offense is going to have to create opportunities to get to the basket.

"Right now we're trying to spread the floor out and give guys driving lanes," said Smith. "We want to play fast and get a lot of shots up."

Fallbrook did just that against Bonsall and three players finished with double-digit scoring totals. Sherman led the Warriors with 17 points, Calhoun had 14 and freshman Yoni Villagram had 12.

Defensively, the Warriors applied good pressure throughout the game against Bonsall.

"We did some good things defensively," said Smith, adding, "our defense has been very good this season so far."

The victory was the first of the season for the Warriors and Smith's first as a high school head coach.

"It's good for our confidence," said Smith of the win. "We had some guys that haven't really scored much this season that got a good amount of points and I think that will help us down the road."

Bonsall High was led by Lance Starks with eight points and Daniel Bertschy with six points.

NOTE: Fallbrook, 1-4, had to cancel its Dec. 8 game against Mission Vista due to the Lilac Fire, which also prevented the Warriors from practicing until Dec. 12 due to poor air quality. Fallbrook will host Otay Ranch in a tournament game Friday, Dec. 15 at

4 p.m.

 

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