By Jeff Odom
The Academy at the Lakes boys basketball team is used to early deficits this season.
The Wildcats (4-4) have trailed in at least the first or second quarter in two of their first three wins to open this year, and their victory over Sunlake Dec. 14 was no different.
After trailing by 12 going into the half, the academy outscored the Seahawks (1-8) by double digits to escape with a 76-50 win.
The Wildcats led just once in the first half with the game’s opening bucket. Sunlake used an array of 3-point shots to keep its opponent out of sync and jumped out to a 23-11 lead.
“We knew their two guards (Jonuel) Martinez and (Brenden) Huynh were really good, but a couple other guys stepped up and made shots,” said academy coach Tom Haslam. “That surprised us, and those two guys got open, and we got caught up on some screens and got caught reaching.”
The Wildcats kept the gap narrow as junior guard and Wiregrass Ranch transfer Malik Hall hit a pair of 3-pointers to cut into Sunlake’s lead going into the half.
“We realized that they were just not better than us,” said Hall, who finished with 11 points. “We needed to start playing like it, and we got on a run and started making shots.”
The academy’s late momentum carried over into the second half as leading scorer Ethan Haslam (24 points) would finally jump into the mix.
The sophomore helped his team open up a game-changing 30-9 run in which Ethan put up four of his six 3-pointers to spark the Wildcats back into the game. The academy ended up leading by 14 going into the fourth.
“Probably the best first half we’ve played all season, and I don’t know if we got complacent or over confident, but we should have known academy would shoot a lot better,” said Seahawks coach Mark Hall. “(It’s) kind of a tale of two halves. We played a great first and completely stink it up in the second.”
The Wildcats continued pouring it on, ending the contest on an 11-0 run to put their opponent away for good.
On the girls’ side, Sunlake was nothing more than a speed bump for the academy, as the Wildcats (8-0) rolled 64-15.
While his team never trailed in the game and led by 25 after the first quarter, academy coach Karim Nohra called numerous timeouts throughout the contest to go over mistakes he saw his team making.
“I’m not worried about scoring at this time in the season,” Nohra said. “Win, lose, doesn’t matter to me. I’m trying to get this team prepared for the playoff run. Every chance we get to correct things … I try to correct them right there on the spot, so it’s still fresh in their minds.”
Freshman Luz Santiago scored 21 points, including five 3-pointers, senior Andrea Mauger had 17 and senior Tatiana Manuel scored 14 for the Wildcats.
