Vikings third at Borrego Springs Basketball Tournament

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

The seven small K-8 elementary schools and middle schools in northern San Diego County and southern Riverside County which participate in athletic tournaments with a different school hosting a different sport each month competed in the Feb. 17 Borrego Springs Basketball Tournament, and the Vallecitos Elementary School girls took third place.

"I'm happy with the girls being able to get third place, especially after losing their first game," said Vallecitos coach Ray Hanbeck.

Borrego Springs Middle School does not have its own gymnasium but is next to Borrego Springs High School, so the tournament took place in the high school gymnasium. The games utilized a 20-minute running clock.

The Vallecitos girls were given a first-round bye (the bye was based on travel to Borrego Springs) and began play against Hamilton Elementary School, which is in Anza. "They beat us pretty handily, 15 to 2. They had really good shooters and tall players, so we were really outmatched," Hanbeck said.

Eighth grader Yamilee Rico scored the two Vallecitos points.

Vallecitos next faced Pauma Elementary School. "That was a much closer game," Hanbeck said.

After 20 minutes the score was 8-8 with Rico scoring six of the Vikings' points and Natalia Loera scoring the other two. A free throw shootout determined the winner, and Rico's shootout basket gave Vallecitos the victory.

The win put Vallecitos into the third-place game against Julian Middle School. "That was a hard-fought game against Julian," Hanbeck said.

The final score was 6-4 in the Vikings' favor. "A lot of defense," Hanbeck said.

Berenice Yanez scored four of the points while Rico had the other two Vallecitos points.

"They came back after losing the first game, and I'm proud of the way they were able to bounce back," Hanbeck said.

Hamilton would win the girls portion of the tournament by defeating Warner Middle School in the championship game.

The Vallecitos boys lost both of their games. "They were able to be competitive against our first opponent, which was Hamilton," Hanbeck said.

Hamilton won by a 16-12 margin. "The game was pretty close most of the way until the end," Hanbeck said.

Jordan Anicete and Andres Rivera each scored six points for the Vikings. Rivera aggravated a lingering injury during the first game. "He played through it," Hanbeck said. "He did a good job in the first game."

Rivera and Hanbeck agreed that Rivera shouldn't play against Borrego Springs, which was to the advantage of Rivera's health but also to the advantage of Borrego's on-court success. "They were able to double-team Jordan, our tallest player," Hanbeck said. "They had him pretty well boxed in most of the game."

Borrego won by a 16-4 margin. "The boys from Borrego were just too much taller than our boys and too much faster and much better shooters," Hanbeck said.

Warner won the boys championship with Hamilton taking second and Borrego obtaining third place. "We played against the second-place team better than we did against the third-place team," Hanbeck said.