Got Milk?: Just kidding, Terrell Bolden goes up for two of his 13 points against Glendora.
By Steve Ramirez, Staff Writer
LA VERNE – The book on how to beat the Damien High School basketball team says to limit senior guard Chris Adams’ scoring. The book proved to be wrong Wednesday night. Glendora held Adams to seven points. But sophomore center Chris Reyes scored 17 points and senior guard Terrell Bolden had 13 to lead the host Spartans to a 56-34 victory over Glendora in the teams’ Sierra League opener. (To continue reading click thread)
Damien, also getting nine points from junior forward J.P. Chakbazof, improved to 13-3 overall. Glendora, receiving 17 points from senior guard Calvin Smith, slipped to 11-4.
“They did everything they could to not let Chris Adams shoot the ball tonight,” Damien coach Matt Dunn said. “I’ve been telling everyone I could that I think our other guys (can beat) you, if that’s what you want to play.
“The first half it didn’t look like it. But the second half we started to make some shots. Our guys work really hard in making some open shots. It was nice to seem them go in.”
Damien also used a solid defensive effort to limit the Tartans, who made just 12 of 46 shots and were held to just 19 points during the first three quarters.
The Spartans, getting six first-half points from Reyes, held the usually productive Tartans to just four field goals in the opening 16 minutes.
Smith, one of the area’s top returning shooters, had 10 of his 17 in the first half. But he had trouble breaking away from Damien’s box-and-one defense, which limited him to just two field goals in the first half.
“We tried hard,” Dunn said. “(Smith) is a great player, and it’s no secret. Everybody knows you have to do the best you can on him.
“I thought our guys gave a great effort and we had a lot of different guys give a solid effort. Our help was pretty good tonight. The guy on him has to do a good job, but the help has to be good, and we did a good job of that.”
Damien, which was just 7 of 28 in the first half, scored enough to be effective. The Spartans, keyed by Bolden’s up-tempo play, scored the first six points and led 7-2 after the first four minutes.
Damien then pushed the advantage to 18-10 with 5:10 left in the second quarter following a fast-break layups by Adams and Reyes and a 3-pointer by Kevin Mansour.
Bolden then countered four free throws from Smith with a driving five-footer to make it 20-14 at halftime.
“It felt good tonight,” Bolden said. “We just wanted to show that we’ve worked hard. We just want to show people that we’re a good team.”
The Spartans proved it to start the second half, pulling away at 27-15 following a layup and two free throws by Reyes and a 3-pointer by Bolden at 5:41 of the third quarter.
The Spartans then closed with a 7-0 run and took a 34-19 lead following a 3-pointer by Adams with four seconds left in the quarter.
“We missed a lot of easy layups in the first half,” Bolden said. “Coach just told us to make them (in the second half), and that’s what we did.”
Damien, getting 3-pointers from Bolden and Chakbazof, opened the fourth quarter with 12-4 surge to seal it.
“Our guys gave a good effort defensively tonight,” Dunn said. “The last couple of years the games we played (against Glendora) have been like this.
steve.ramirez@sgvn.com 626-962-8811, ext. 2296
