Jermal Pittman scored 19 points and the Clovis East Timberwolves full-court press silenced the Sunnyside offense on Tuesday night, giving the Clovis East boys basketball team an 86-49 win. It moves the team’s record to 2-0 on the season.
The Timberwolves put up 21 points before the Wildcats could find their first basket of the night. Clovis East’s full-court press left Sunnyside largely unable to get the ball passed the half-court line, leading to desperate passes often stolen by Timberwolves defenders.
After one, the Timberwolves were up 35-6 and setting an offensive and defensive pace that would last for the rest of the night.
William Wiggins had 12 points – eight of which came in the first quarter. Tyler Pacheco added to the onslaught with nine points, including a three-pointer.
“I thought we came out and executed and we played hard, we shared the ball, I was happy about that. I thought our defense was pretty sound. We stayed in our stance, we blocked out, so we did some of the things that we wanted to do,” head coach Adrian Wiggins said after the game.
Despite the strong showing from the Timberwolves, Wiggins still sees areas of the team’s game that need to be addressed.
“The pace of our half-court offense was still a little too slow and we still dribble a little too fast without reading the floor and taking advantage of the defense,” Wiggins explained.
Jajuan King was Sunnyside’s top scorer with 11 points, he went 4-6 from the free-throw line and made one three-point shot. With this loss, Sunnyside drops to 0-3. This comes after the Wildcats dropped games to Central and Buchanan. They have been outscored in their first three games 225-138.
Up next for Clovis East, they host St. Joseph Notre Dame, a private school from Alameda, Calif. The Timberwolves then go into their first tournament of the season. With a busy schedule on the horizon, it makes early games like this one even more important, according to coach Wiggins.
“We have a pretty tough schedule coming up. Anytime we get to play, we have a chance to evaluate ourselves and look at film and that is always helpful especially with this age of student-athletes.”