Santa Rosa basketball team tops Cal Lutheran, 59-46

Santa Rosa Academy guard Dylan Sapong tries to penetrate the Cal Lutheran defense Tuesday night.

Story and photo by Joe Quinn, Correspondent

The Santa Rosa Academy boys basketball team came into Tuesday’s game with a 1-3 record, but the Rangers played as if that should be the other way around. They pulled away from California Lutheran of Wildomar to win, 59-46, in the first game of the SoCal Classic.

Coach Gabriel Flores’ Rangers broke out fast, taking a 6-0 lead, but that melted quickly as the Cal Lutheran C-Hawks played them closely throughout the early going, keeping the game within reach. The quarter ended with the Rangers up by only one point at 14-13.

The second quarter was a different story as the Ranger defense held Cal Lutheran to 11 points while SRA sophomore Michael Hazzard buried four 3-pointers, opening the Rangers’ lead to 12. The half closed at 36-24 Rangers and it never got closer than a nine-point margin from then on.

The pace of the game slowed in the third quarter and even more so in the fourth quarter as the Rangers played ball control and kept the Cal Lutheran shooters cold while constantly clogging the driving lanes. Fouls by both sides on fast breaks also slowed the pace. Breakaways by both teams, although frequent, produced few positive results.

Roman Womber, despite being scoreless on the night, played big in the middle until leaving with an injury midway through the second half.

Three Rangers were in double figures. Isaiah Ramos and Dylan Sapong both added 11 points to go with Hazzard’s 29. Caden Frutos and Kai Loquet played extensively with each adding two points while Jacob Demos put four on the board.

Gavin Jiang led the C-Hawk scoring with 17 points on eight field goals and one from the line. He was followed by Nicholas Schroeder with 14.

The Rangers play again on Thursday in Wildomar in the second game of the Classic.