Ramos, Hazzard lead Santa Rosa to tournament win

Santa Rosa Academy's William Henry maneuvers for position against Nuview in Thursday's tournament game.

Story and photo by Joe Quinn, Correspondent

Santa Rosa Academy’s boys basketball team evened its season record at 3-3 with Thursday night's hard-earned win over the Knights of Nuview High, 58-42, in the SoCal Classic Tournament, hosted by Cal Lutheran High.

The tournament is proving to be good tonic for the Rangers. Outscored and clearly outplayed in both the first and second quarters, the Rangers went into the locker room at the half down by 8 points, 27-19, and showing no spark. Other than some early points on the board by Michael Hazzard and Jacob Demos, coupled with constant athletic hustle by Caden Frutos, not much else was working for the Rangers.

Even their point guard, Dylan Sapong, was out of the game after taking a hard body shot and a hit to the floor. He did not return and things were not looking good for the team as they walked off the court. The crowd was quiet.

Apparently Coaches Flores and Rice mapped out a workable and aggressive approach at halftime and the Rangers came out flying on defense while they got their shooting eye working again. The team pressed the whole second half and did not slow the pace, even when they had the ball, turning it back and racing it up court.

No count was kept, but it seemed steals must have been in the 20-plus range as the Rangers were no sooner down the court but speeding back to their basket. Of course, fouls increased as well, but neither team did well from the line.

With the score at 29-28 favoring the Knights at the 3:00 minute mark of the third, SRA’s Hazzard buried a 3-pointer and the Rangers took the lead for the first time. Not to be outdone, Isaiah Ramos copied Hazzard next time down and the Rangers never relinquished the lead, ending the third quarter up, 41-34.

Given the way the Knights had outscored the Rangers in the first half, a seven-point lead did not seem comfortable. Coach Flores decided to keep the pressure on and the tactic kept working as the steals and turnovers kept coming. The Rangers had the speed and size to use in the press, and William Henry was all over his opponent, never giving the Knights the peace they needed to set up.

Ramos, Kai Loquet, Frutos and "Big Guy in the Middle" Roman Womber kept the Knights out of range and with cold shooting. Ramos and Hazzard led the Ranger scoring with 15 and 22 points, respectively. Hazzard is averaging 25.5 points through the first two games of the Classic.

It seemed the whole team got to the basket in the fast-paced second half. Henry and Frutos both threw in 6 and Sapong had 3 before going down injured in the early going. Demos, Loquet and Womber joined the group putting in 2 points, each combining nicely with their strong defense.