Team hopes to close strong
By Hector Trujillo
After starting off slowly with back to back losses at the hands of La Jolla Country Day and Mission Hills High, the Scripps Ranch High School mens varsity basketball team was able to find its footing under new head coach Matt Nash.
The Falcons then followed up by winning three of the next four games starting with a 58-52 victory over Ramona High on Nov. 26, a 40-36 win against Rancho Bernardo High on Nov. 30 and a 44-40 victory versus Westview High School on Dec. 10.
“I love my group of players,” Nash said. “We’ve played some tough teams and it took time to learn what they do well, but I’m happy with the direction of the season.”
Nash replaced Brock Flint and interim coach Travis Pettey in late July, having spent last season as a varsity assistant coach at Santa Monica High School. He also coached high school at Glendale Preparatory Academy in Arizona the two years previous, along with spending time with the Portland Trailblazers of the National Basketball Association for two seasons in 2016 and 2017 as a video analyst.
“The big thing for us is we’ve got to continue playing the right way – playing together and sharing the basketball while having fun and making each other better,” he said.
Showing their resilience, the Falcons bounced back from losing five out of six between Dec. 13 and Dec. 26, with the lone victory coming Dec. 18 against Oceanside High. A three-game winning streak started on Dec. 27 with a 77-54 win over St. Joseph Academy. That was followed by an 81-52 blowout over Steele Canyon High and a dramatic 62-60 victory against Tri-City Christian on Dec. 30. Scripps Ranch has gone 4-4 overall so far in both tournaments that it has competed in with some of the standout players this season being senior Dominic Stevens, junior Charlie Barajas and senior Dominic Procopio who have made an impact on the offensive and defensive ends.
All except for one of the seven games remaining will come against league opponents starting on Jan. 24 versus St. Augustine High followed by a rematch against Mira Mesa High on Jan. 28. The Falcons will close out the regular season with three-straight home matches including the season finale on Feb. 13 against St. Augustine High.
