Slow Start Costs Heritage in League-Opening Loss

By Sierra Trujillo

In Heritage High School’s boys basketball home league opener Thursday night, the Patriots were handed a loss by the defending Sunbelt League champion Tigers of Elsinore High School.

The one-sided score of 79-50 illustrated that the Patriots have much to work on if they want to be competitors in the Sunbelt League this season. Coach Andrew Ellis was adamant when he said that his team did not display the effort that was needed in order to compete against a team with Elsinore’s skill.

“I think, unfortunate as it is, the kids came out a little scared and we can’t do that,” said Ellis. “We can’t come out against a really good team like that. They’ll bury you from the start… just not playing scared and playing with a little bit of effort would have probably helped.”

The Patriots struggled from the start. They scored a mere two points in the first quarter and had only scored 16 points by halftime, at which time the Tigers led, 38-16.

The Patriots came out of halftime with a bit more enthusiasm than they showed in the first half. They  scored 14 points in the third period, and followed by scoring 20 points in the final period of the game to bring their total to an even 50 points.

“I think after we got our bearings and after we realized stuff is working for us, I think [we] came out and played [our] game versus playing scared,” said Ellis.

Senior Jonathan Gordon led the team in the second half with 13 points, while senior Walter Meinzer scored six points in the second half, which brought his game total to 10 points.

“Here and there there’s a couple kids we really lean on, but it’s different aspects of the game,” said Ellis. “We really depend on everybody. We need all 10 guys every game.”

As the Patriots look forward to their next game and the rest of the season, Ellis said that Heritage has places to improve their game, but will focus on one game at a time.

“One game at a time; we’re not trying to look in the future,” said Ellis. “[We] try to take it slow, baby steps, and just keep playing our game and not letting other things affect us too much.”

Heritage will play at Perris, another league rival, on Tuesday.