ROHNERT PARK, Calif - Rancho Cotate struggled to get going Thursday night in its second NBL-Redwood game against Elsie Allen, but the Cougars were able to find a way to get a convincing 63-43 win over the Lobos.
This was the second time the two teams have met. Rancho Cotate won the first battle on Dec. 30 in the Trojan Classic, 58-47.
“Resilience is the word I’d use,” said Rancho Cotate head coach Mike Washington. “We’ve shown time and time again that even we’re down by a bunch, we can come back and win games, and we did it again tonight.”
The game was played in Rancho Cotate’s brand new TAG building, just the fifth boys basketball game played there.
Elsie Allen (3-11, 1-1) head coach Johnny Phanchanh always has his players play hard, and they did it again tonight. In the second quarter, the Lobos went on a 17-2 run to take a 10 point lead behind Christian Gonzalez and Kevin Becerra’s hot shooting.
Rancho Cotate (9-8, 2-0) slowly chipped it back to a four point game before Andrew Pengel hit a three right before the buzzer to go into the half trailing 24-23.
“We just keep fighting. It may not be pretty, but we stay in games because of that fight.” said Washington.
Rancho Cotate would continue that in the fourth quarter, just as Coach Washington was talking about, with a 21-5 outburst, with Javion Scott being the lead catalyst with 12 of those points, and Pengel eight himself to give the Cougars the comfortable lead late. Scott would score the final eight points of the run, one on an emphatic dunk to excite the crowd.
Alejandro Ramos kept playing hard even with the big deficit in the fourth quarter, scoring three points. Darius Hurst would close the scoring with a step back three with just over a minute left.
Elsie Allen came to play early on. David Roldan shot the ball well early, pacing the Lobos lead early on, with some help from Josiah Savanaseng, dropping in a three, trading the one hit by Rancho’s Sai Vadrawale earlier in the first quarter.
Roldan finished out the quarter stepping inside the three point line for a long two, but Rancho Cotate still held a 13-12 lead after one.
The third quarter became a back and forth battle as the game stayed close. After Issac Candelaria hit one of two from the free throw line. Roldan continued his hot shooting banging home a three. Pengel got back to the free throw line, hitting a pair, and Hurst hit a shot inside the three point line to put Rancho Cotate up 28-27.
Kia Zanga and Savanaseng both got offensive rebounds, and turned it into putback buckets to put the Lobos back up by three, but a three from Pengel and a shot from Johnny Breitmeyer carried the Cougars to a 36-34 lead after three.
Pengel finished with 21 points for Rancho Cotate, with Scott adding 16 points, and Hurst & Malik Roby dropping in eight points apiece.
“I’d like to see us put everything together and be able to be mentally ready and focused to play all four quarters of a game.” Washington concluded postgame.
Rancho Cotate will host Sonoma Academy-Santa Rosa in a non league game Saturday night. The Coyotes have won four games in a row.
Elsie Allen will travel to Mt. Diablo on Saturday night in a non league game.
