Warriors outnumbered in basketball season opener

The first Fallbrook High School boys basketball game of the 2020-21 season was played March 26 against Carlsbad at Fallbrook High School. That night Fallbrook's football team was playing at Ramona, so eight students who play both football and basketball for Fallbrook didn't play basketball for the Warriors and a ninth Fallbrook player had made plans to be out of town before he learned of the basketball schedule.

"We only had six kids, so it was tough," said Fallbrook coach Moe Golshani.

Golshani, who made his Fallbrook High School coaching debut March 26, was able to obtain 15 boys for the program. Fallbrook will not have a junior varsity team for 2020-21, which meant that there was no junior varsity game between Fallbrook and Carlsbad and the Lancers were able to utilize JV players as reserves against the Warriors.

"We got our teeth kicked in," Golshani said.

The final score was 91-24. "They were just way bigger than us and more physical," Golshani said. "They were just physically superior to us."

The six Fallbrook players were two seniors, including one who did not play basketball in 2019-20, two juniors, one sophomore, and one freshman. "Effort was never a problem and we played as tough as we could, but basketball-wise we made a lot of mistakes," Golshani said.

Fallbrook's scoring consisted of eight successful shots. "Those were all three-pointers," Golshani said.

That means Carlsbad's defense was successful in keeping Fallbrook out of the painted area of the court. "They're really good," Golshani said of the Lancers.

The freshman, Samuel Carmona, led the Warriors with nine points. The team rebounds leader, junior Mitchell Baker, grabbed six balls off the glass.

The Warriors had fewer than 10 practices prior to their season

opener, although those practice days conflicted with activity for other sports. "We haven't had the full team once," Golshani said.

Fallbrook had more players March 27 when the Warriors played at Carlsbad High School, although that game ended as a 90-35 Lancers triumph. "We had a little bit of improvement," Golshani said.

"We were 12 points better than the night before," Golshani said. "We let them score one less and we scored 11 more."

Golshani was understanding about the loss. "I think the score is reflective of our skills compared to Carlsbad," he said.

"It's a wakeup call for the kids," Golshani said. "We can be a lot better."

If the players adopt that attitude in practice, the Warriors will improve. "It's just a matter of getting better and developing into winners," Golshani said.

Golshani noted that "winners" does not necessarily refer to the score of any given game.

"We have nowhere to go but up," Golshani said.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].