Speed and athleticism helps Coyotes to win
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
Madera’s Michael Green drives to the bucket during the Coyotes’ 74-38 victory over Corcoran.
The Madera Coyote boys basketball team forced 38 turnovers and had 23 steals to cruise to a 74-38 victory over the Corcoran Panthers on the opening night of the Madera South Basketball Tournament.
The Coyotes also got 20 points from Travon Ray and 14 from Michael Green for the victory. Also key to the win was a 19-0 run that lasted for about seven minutes, from the second to the third quarter.
“Losing Ethan (Richardson) last year, we’re smaller,” head coach Mike Hawkins said. “We gained a lot of athleticism and quickness. We are trying to play at lot more up tempo game and push the ball. Size-wise, we’re not there, but we can make up for quickness. We have a ways to go. We’re looking to push the tempo.”
Pushing the tempo got the Coyotes plenty of easy buckets. The Coyotes didn’t hit a jumper until K’Veon Jones hit a 3-pointer with about two minutes left in the third quarter.
“Our athleticism is going to dictate us,” Hawkins said. “We tell the guys that tough defense leads to easy offense. If we can use our athleticism to get us our easy bucket when you don’t have to set up the offense is what we’re looking at.”
Madera scored the first six points of the game. Green took a rebound for a layup. After two free throws from Ray, Jones took a steal in for a layup.
Corcoran cut the Coyote lead to one, but the Coyotes scored the next nine points to end the quarter.
Ray started the run with a free throw. Mark Cardoza put back his own miss for a bucket. Stetson Nelson turned a steal into a layup. Ray stole a Corcoran inbounds and made a layup and then put back a missed 3-pointer for a bucket and a 15-5 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Ray extended the run to 11 with a steal and layup. After the teams exchanged buckets, Ray stopped a two minute scoring drought with a short jumper. Corcoran added a jumper and made two free throws with 2:17 left in the second quarter.
From there, it was all Coyotes until midway through the third quarter. Green started the run with a rebound and layup. Ray turned a rebound into a 3-point play and Komari Law turned a steal into a layup for a 30-14 lead at the end of the first half.
Jones started the second half scoring with a offensive rebound putback. After two free throws from Green, Ray turned two seals into two layups.
Green took a rebound and scored for a 3-point play. Law found Nelson down low for a layup and a 44-14 lead.
Corcoran hit a 3-pointer to end the 19-0 run with about three minutes left in the third.
The Coyotes closed the quarter with three free throws from Cardoza, a Jones 3-pointer, four free throws and a jumper from Gabriel Villegas and two free throws from Raeshaun Hill for a 57-25 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Ray hit two free throws and Gabriel Ruiz put back a missed shot to open the fourth quarter. After a Corcoran 3-pointer, Green made a layup and Ray hit a 3-pointer for a 66-28 lead.
Corcoran scored five points, but a steal and layup from Hill and two short jumpers from Ricardo Bueno opened the score to 72-33. Bueno closed Madera’s scoring with an offensive putback for the 74-38 victory.
Madera finishes the Madera South tournament today against Chowchilla at 12:30 p.m. and is off until the Holiday Invitational Tournament on Dec. 14 at Hoover High School in Fresno.
