Lack of focus sinks Aztecs

BARSTOW • With the playoffs looming, it’s the time of year where every game is an important one for high school basketball teams. A sub-par performance right now is a case of extremely bad timing.

Unfortunately for the Barstow girls, they experienced one of those games in their latest match.

The Aztecs hosted Granite Hills on Thursday, a team they beat by 20 points the last time it came to town. Things didn’t go as well this time around, as the Cougars left with a 58-43 win, in Desert Sky League play.

Hills came ready to battle, and scrapped until the final horn. The Cougars showed a desire and intensity that was missing from the home team, according to Aztecs assistant coach Marvin Ellis.

“It all comes down to focus, and we didn’t have that tonight,” he said. “We didn’t shoot well from the free throw line and we had 30 turnovers. I don’t care who you play, you can’t win with 30 turnovers.”

The Cougars like to shoot from downtown, and wasted no time putting their outside game on display. Their first three field goals of the night were 3-pointers, and they collected four in the first quarter. There were two more in the second, but then only one in the whole second half, one area in which the Aztecs were able to execute the game plan.

“They’re a 3-point shooting team, and they got a few early, but we made some adjustments at halftime and shut them down,” said Ellis. “But we still lacked focus. We took away their outside shot, but we still didn’t make our shots from the line, and they did.”

The numbers tell the story. Hills got only one more field goal than Barstow, 17 to the Aztecs’ 16, but had seven treys to Barstow’s one. In free throws, the Cougars went 17-for-22, while the Aztecs were 10-for-28.

“The difference was at the line, the game was won and lost there,” said coach Ellis.

And then there was that focus thing. Seeing his team out of sorts was a surprise to Ellis, especially coming off its previous contest. The Aztecs played Silverado on Tuesday, and though it was a loss against a tough D1 team, Barstow left it all out on the floor in that game, which wasn’t the case on Thursday.

“Even though we lost to Silverado, it was probably our best game of the year. We had only nine turnovers and eight fouls,” said the coach. “We played with intensity and focus, neither of which we had tonight. We lacked focus, and that was reflected in the execution of our offense.”

Barstow’s leading scorer was Katlyn Parks with 14 points, along with eight rebounds. Jasmine Green also had eight boards and scored eight points.

The Cougars’ Kynobi Johnson was the game high scorer with 21 points, while Kerie Brown (18 points) and Jazz Gates (11 points) were also in double figures.

In the end, Ellis hopes the team can learn enough from this experience to make sure it doesn’t happen again. That turnaround will have to be quick, as there are only three games remaining in the regular season, one of them against Silverado. A postseason berth is already assured, but where the Aztecs will be seeded is up to them.

“It’s gut-check time. In our next three games, we need to come ready to play,” Ellis said. “Every loss will drop us further in the bracket, and we don’t want to draw a 20-win team (in the playoffs).

“We’re right there on the edge of being one of the elite teams. But we have to prove it. We can’t come out and play like we did tonight.”

The Aztecs’ (11-8, 5-2) next two games are away, at Burroughs and Victor Valley. The final game of the season will be at home, against Silverado on Feb. 9.