February 25, 2023: The Clovis West Boys Basketball team lost by a score of 74-58 to the St. Joseph Knights out of Santa Maria.
The Knights, bigger and seemingly faster than the Golden Eagles, took off to a hot start and never looked back. Clovis West from the start of the game did their best full court press against St. Joseph, but it would be to no true satisfaction as the Knights found ways to get to the bucket.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Clovis West Golden Eagles stayed consistently behind the three point line, trying to spread out the Knights large defensive prowess.
At the end of the first quarter, the score was deadlocked at 14 as the Knights couldn’t quite get past the full court onslaught at first. However, in the second quarter, the most entertaining quarter of basketball for the game, the Golden Eagles traded shots with St. Joseph going score for score.
Each time the Knights made their way to the paint though, they found easy buckets just in relation to body size, realizing that they could push their way to the cup. By the end of the half, the 14 point tie would turn into a 14 point lead for the Knights, finally being cut to 13 after one made free throw by Clovis West.
The Golden Eagles would never see a chance to take the lead from that point onwards, as each time they scored it seemed the Knights would do the same. Never being able to catch up makes it extremely difficult as sooner or later time becomes an enemy rather than a friend.
It seemed that Clovis West parents attempted to rally the Clovis West student section, as down by 17 at the start of the fourth quarter, the student section made their best effort of the game to motivate both themselves and their basketball team.
At the end of a long day though, and a long game for the Clovis West Golden Eagles, they would end up losing by 16 in the Valley Championship. Much like the Clovis West Girls Basketball team, the St. Joseph Knights will look to continue their playoff run at the State Championships starting this Tuesday, February 28th.