Lack of depth hurting Warrior boys basketball

Fallbrook High School's boys basketball team entered Valley League competition with a season record of 0-16, although nine of the last 10 losses were by 12 points or less.

"We're having kind of a tough season," said Fallbrook coach Ryan Smith.

The lack of depth is the most significant reason for the Warriors' lack of success in the win-loss component. "We've gotten progressively better as the season's gone on. Just can't seem to hold any leads right now," Smith said.

Fallbrook's varsity roster includes 10 players. One of those is senior Malachi Gordon, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament a week before the season began. "When he went down it kind of changed everything up for us," Smith said.

Last year Gordon averaged approximately 12 points per game, and during summer play he averaged approximately 16 points per game. This season junior Joel Calhoun is averaging approximately 24 points per game, but the loss of Gordon limits Smith's ability to rest Calhoun.

"It's just become kind of a depth issue," Smith said. "It's hard to get Joel any breaks."

Calhoun, who is 6-foot, 3-inches, is the Warriors' tallest player. Gordon is 6-foot, 2-inches but was able to guard taller opponents. "It now comes down to other kids who haven't been used to doing it," Smith said.

The need for a "big guy" on the court – if Calhoun, Gordon and 6-foot, 2-inch senior Tommy Martin can be called that – gave Calhoun and Martin more playing time than Smith desired after the team lost Gordon. The original plan was to rotate Gordon, Calhoun, and Martin to give those players occasional rest.

Fallbrook's junior varsity has nine players. "It was a little bit of a turnout issue," Smith said.

"We have a decent amount of freshmen," Smith said. "We didn't have a lot of kids trying out."

The varsity consists of four seniors including Gordon, four juniors, one sophomore and one freshman.

"We had about eight kids transfer out," Smith said. "That kind of hurt us."

The transfers were on the 2017-18 varsity or junior varsity team or had worked with the Warriors during the spring or summer sessions. Parental job relocations or military assignments were the reason for the transfers; none of them were basketball-related.

"We just kind of had hard luck with all that," Smith said.

Smith estimates that four of those players would have been on the Warriors' 2018-19 varsity had they remained at Fallbrook High School.

Four of Fallbrook's varsity players are 5'10" or shorter. "We're pretty short, but we've handled it pretty well," Smith said. "We've done a good job."

Defense against taller opponents takes a physical toll which manifests itself in the fourth quarter when a team is fatigued. During the Jan. 2-5 New Year's Tip Off Classic tournament hosted by Del Norte High School, the Warriors had leads in all four games. "We've been competitive," Smith said.

The Warriors' first one-point loss of the season was a 55-54 defeat in the Jan. 2 contest against Mount Carmel, and the following day Maranatha Christian defeated Fallbrook in a 54-52 contest.

A team's depth decreases if a player fouls out of the game, which in high school occurs if a player accrues five personal fouls, but the Warriors have been successful in avoiding foul trouble this season. "We actually haven't had a ton of trouble," Smith said.

"We've gotten better as the season's gone on," Smith said. "The kids are working hard, and they're playing hard."