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Elk Grove sweeps simultaneous doubleheader
  
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By John Hull - Citizen Sports Writer
Editor’s note: Citizen writer John Hull covered two basketball games simultaneously at Elk Grove High School. Here is his account of both games.
Assignment: Cover two varsity basketball games going on simultaneously at the same school. Interesting assignment, but up to the challenge.
In the Elk Grove High School’s south gym last Wednesday night, the Lady Herd hosted Florin, winless at 0-7. But the Lady Herd (4-4) had lost three in a row themselves, all games at a tournament in San Luis Obispo, and they needed a solid win.
In the Cartwright Gym, the varsity boys were hosting Edison from Stockton. The Thundering Herd was 3-3 with a team that has only two players back from last season’s Delta Valley Conference championship team.
A phone call to Elk Grove athletic director Zack Leach explained the reason for the dual event scheduling.
“Don’t blame me. The girls had a chance to play Florin and this was the only night we could do it (before Christmas).” he explained. “The boys had the Edison game already scheduled so we thought it might end up being a neat idea.”
The night started by driving into the school’s rear parking lot.
6:32 p.m. - While turning into that weird right-then-quick left turn driveway to the large parking lot in the rear of Elk Grove High School, you have to wonder if anyone has ever taken out the corner of the “P” wing building which lines the driveway with their vehicle. Likely.
6:33 p.m. - Park. Lots of empty slots and it’s cold so it won’t be a long walk into either gym.
6:35 p.m. - Notice something is going on inside the cafeteria, so the basketball snack bar is set up outside. Poor volunteers. At least they won’t have to ice down the sodas. On the radio they said it was 42 degrees.
6:36 p.m. - Elk Grove has new scoreboards. It was needed. Too many light bulbs burned out on the old one. One of the scoreboards had difficulty in illuminating the No. 7. Probably was the original scoreboard when the school was build 40 years ago or so.
6:40 p.m. - Franklin High School coach Jesse Formaker walks in. He says the Wildcats are playing Edison in a few days and they have to play the Herd twice so it makes sense to come in and scout tonight. Formaker says one of his team leaders Amir Carraway broke his foot in the foundation game in November and is out a minimum of six weeks. He isn’t sure he’ll have Carraway at all this year.
6:52 p.m. - Walk across the driveway to the south gym. The boys’ JV game is still in the third quarter. Court in the south gym looks larger than the one in the Cartwright. It isn’t. It’s all perception. The south gym has a much higher ceiling, plus the bleachers are further back from the sideline than in the Cartwright. Girls are warming up for the varsity game.
Shelby and Janelle Wisdom’s dad, Tom, says that Shelby, who will pitch for the Lady Herd softball team, is now down to deciding between Fresno State and UC Santa Barbara. She’s just a sophomore. Janelle is a senior and will likely see plenty of action tonight. She’ll play first base on the softball team.
7 p.m. - Girls break the huddle. New coach Amanda Buck’s husband, Tom, is standing with her. They have new home uniforms. Mostly white with just a little bit of navy trimming.
Both of the Esperanza girls, Ginelle and Samantha, start. Samantha Schuring, Chelsea Suitos and Natali Robards fill out the starting five.
7:02 p.m. - Elk Grove is applying a full-court press and doing quite well with it. Suitos swishes a three-pointer at the shot clock buzzer and the rout is underway, 5-2.
7:03 p.m. - Third Florin turnover in a row. Suitos finds Schuring cutting to the bucket. Layup and it’s 7-2. Timeout Lady Panthers.
7:06 p.m. - Esperanza (Samantha) is posted low and banks it in nicely for a 9-5 lead.
7:07 p.m. - Lady Herd gets another turnover. Basket and it is 13-5. Timeout Florin. Overheard from the Elk Grove huddle, “Keep being patient. Their defense will come to you,” Buck encourages her girls.
7:20 p.m. - Lauren Chetner comes off the bench, comes up with a nice steal, misses a layup, but Schuring grabs the rebound and is nailed as she goes up with a shot. Somehow the ball goes in. She nets the free throw for an 18-8 lead. End of first quarter. Time to check on the boys’ game.
7:24 p.m. - Boys finish warmups. Same uniforms as last season.
7:27 p.m. - Edison is 1-5 going into the game and you can sort of see why. They open up out of control. Herd coach Rudy Ortega has his guys playing a motion offense and moving around a bunch. Adam Jacob nails tries a three-pointer, misses, hustles after the ball, grabs it away from a couple Vikings and drives through lane for the first bucket.
7:29 p.m. - Sophomore Ryan Murray is a starting guard. His dad is longtime Sacramento radio personality and executive Derek Murray, affectionately known by local golden throats as “Mr. Never-In-A-Hurry.” The younger Murray is a Reggie Miller-type player. Call him, “Always-In-A-Hurry.”
7:33 p.m. - Max Flournoy scores on a layup on a feed from Nate Hall. Flourney is really quick.
7:34 p.m. - Ortega has now played 12 guys in the game. Edison can’t buy a basket and the Herd leads 9-3.
7:36 p.m. - Noticed that former Herd soccer player Stephanie Lopez-Cox’ team USA jersey is hanging enclosed in a frame on the south wall of the Cartwright. She was No. 6. On the other side hangs the professional football jerseys of Adrian Ross and Lance Briggs, both former Herd players.
7:41 p.m. - As per usual, it is getting warm in the Cartwright, so it’s time to return to the south gym. Jacob sinks a three-pointer at the buzzer and Elk Grove is leading Edison, 16-13 after the first quarter.
7:42 p.m. - Walk into the south gym just as the halftime buzzer is sounding. Elk Grove leads Florin 32-13. Suitos and Schuring both have nine points.
7:49 p.m. - Return to the Cartwright. It’s 23-17, Elk Grove, with 4:14 left in the first half. Edison’s coach is ticked at his post player who just hammered Hall on a pull-up jumper. Notice last year’s leading scorer, Yemi Akilo, is in the stands. Probably home for the Holidays.
7:56 p.m. - Josh Hallberg sinks a short jumper after a nice feed from Alex Angell. Elk Grove leads 27-23 with 42 seconds left in the half.
7:57 p.m. - Angell steals a pass after an Edison player goes into the stands to save a loose ball. Angell’s shot rattles through for a 29-28 lead at halftime. Jacob has 10 points and Hall has five.
8:01 p.m. - Walk with Leach back to the girls’ game. It’s now 41-13, Elk Grove, with three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Florin’s really struggling. On one possession, the Lady Herd had three shots at the bucket and out-hustled the Panthers for rebounds each time. Robards keeps the ball alive for a fourth shot opportunity. Florin comes up with a rebound and to add to its futility, the player grabbing the outlet pass steps on the sideline and it’s Lady Herd ball, again.
8:08 p.m. - Schuring misses a shot at the buzzer, but Elk Grove leads 41-14 after three periods.
8:17 p.m. – Back to the boys’ game. Hall steals the ball and lays it up on the other end. Elk Grove is ahead 39-28 with 2:01 left in the third.
8:19 p.m. - Crowd is now in the game, pretty loud. STOMP! First time Ortega needed to get the attention of his players on the court and had to slam his foot on the floor to get their attention. It’s becoming this young coach’s trademark.
8:21 p.m. - Return to the south gym. Lady Herd cruising by 22 points with 1:40 left.
8:23 p.m. - Laura Bell hits a three-pointer with eight seconds remaining. Buzzer and it is now final, 46-21. Elk Grove is 5-4, snapping their three-game losing streak. Florin is still looking for its first win.
Time for Buck’s first post-game interview as a varsity coach and boast about their defensive effort. “That’s our point of emphasis,” she said. “We’re not the best shooters, so in order for us to be successful this season, we have to get after them. We have to get the teams to turn the balls over and get easy baskets the other way.”
8:28 p.m. - Back to the Cartwright for the end of the boys’ game. Elk Grove’s margin is 15 points with 6:16 left in the game. Edison was shutout in the third quarter, 12-0.
8:33 p.m. - Jacob hits a bank shot for the Herd’s biggest margin, 49-34, with just under three minutes left.
8:41 p.m. - Hall is fouled on the defensive end. Makes two free throws on the double bonus. Edison hits a consolation three-pointer. Elk Grove, which is now 4-3, wins 55-42. Hall leads all scorers with 20 points. Jacob added 15.
“I use (Hall) every way imaginable,” Ortega said after a quick post-game meeting. “He’s our guy. (Jacob and Hall) will have to play that way every night for us to be successful. That’s the best they’ve played together.”
8:55 p.m. - Akilo says he isn’t playing basketball at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. He is studying to become a city planner. Elk Grove will need him. The city, that is.
Assignment: Cover two varsity basketball games going on simultaneously at the same school. Interesting assignment, but up to the challenge.
In the Elk Grove High School’s south gym last Wednesday night, the Lady Herd hosted Florin, winless at 0-7. But the Lady Herd (4-4) had lost three in a row themselves, all games at a tournament in San Luis Obispo, and they needed a solid win.
In the Cartwright Gym, the varsity boys were hosting Edison from Stockton. The Thundering Herd was 3-3 with a team that has only two players back from last season’s Delta Valley Conference championship team.
A phone call to Elk Grove athletic director Zack Leach explained the reason for the dual event scheduling.
“Don’t blame me. The girls had a chance to play Florin and this was the only night we could do it (before Christmas).” he explained. “The boys had the Edison game already scheduled so we thought it might end up being a neat idea.”
The night started by driving into the school’s rear parking lot.
6:32 p.m. - While turning into that weird right-then-quick left turn driveway to the large parking lot in the rear of Elk Grove High School, you have to wonder if anyone has ever taken out the corner of the “P” wing building which lines the driveway with their vehicle. Likely.
6:33 p.m. - Park. Lots of empty slots and it’s cold so it won’t be a long walk into either gym.
6:35 p.m. - Notice something is going on inside the cafeteria, so the basketball snack bar is set up outside. Poor volunteers. At least they won’t have to ice down the sodas. On the radio they said it was 42 degrees.
6:36 p.m. - Elk Grove has new scoreboards. It was needed. Too many light bulbs burned out on the old one. One of the scoreboards had difficulty in illuminating the No. 7. Probably was the original scoreboard when the school was build 40 years ago or so.
6:40 p.m. - Franklin High School coach Jesse Formaker walks in. He says the Wildcats are playing Edison in a few days and they have to play the Herd twice so it makes sense to come in and scout tonight. Formaker says one of his team leaders Amir Carraway broke his foot in the foundation game in November and is out a minimum of six weeks. He isn’t sure he’ll have Carraway at all this year.
6:52 p.m. - Walk across the driveway to the south gym. The boys’ JV game is still in the third quarter. Court in the south gym looks larger than the one in the Cartwright. It isn’t. It’s all perception. The south gym has a much higher ceiling, plus the bleachers are further back from the sideline than in the Cartwright. Girls are warming up for the varsity game.
Shelby and Janelle Wisdom’s dad, Tom, says that Shelby, who will pitch for the Lady Herd softball team, is now down to deciding between Fresno State and UC Santa Barbara. She’s just a sophomore. Janelle is a senior and will likely see plenty of action tonight. She’ll play first base on the softball team.
7 p.m. - Girls break the huddle. New coach Amanda Buck’s husband, Tom, is standing with her. They have new home uniforms. Mostly white with just a little bit of navy trimming.
Both of the Esperanza girls, Ginelle and Samantha, start. Samantha Schuring, Chelsea Suitos and Natali Robards fill out the starting five.
7:02 p.m. - Elk Grove is applying a full-court press and doing quite well with it. Suitos swishes a three-pointer at the shot clock buzzer and the rout is underway, 5-2.
7:03 p.m. - Third Florin turnover in a row. Suitos finds Schuring cutting to the bucket. Layup and it’s 7-2. Timeout Lady Panthers.
7:06 p.m. - Esperanza (Samantha) is posted low and banks it in nicely for a 9-5 lead.
7:07 p.m. - Lady Herd gets another turnover. Basket and it is 13-5. Timeout Florin. Overheard from the Elk Grove huddle, “Keep being patient. Their defense will come to you,” Buck encourages her girls.
7:20 p.m. - Lauren Chetner comes off the bench, comes up with a nice steal, misses a layup, but Schuring grabs the rebound and is nailed as she goes up with a shot. Somehow the ball goes in. She nets the free throw for an 18-8 lead. End of first quarter. Time to check on the boys’ game.
7:24 p.m. - Boys finish warmups. Same uniforms as last season.
7:27 p.m. - Edison is 1-5 going into the game and you can sort of see why. They open up out of control. Herd coach Rudy Ortega has his guys playing a motion offense and moving around a bunch. Adam Jacob nails tries a three-pointer, misses, hustles after the ball, grabs it away from a couple Vikings and drives through lane for the first bucket.
7:29 p.m. - Sophomore Ryan Murray is a starting guard. His dad is longtime Sacramento radio personality and executive Derek Murray, affectionately known by local golden throats as “Mr. Never-In-A-Hurry.” The younger Murray is a Reggie Miller-type player. Call him, “Always-In-A-Hurry.”
7:33 p.m. - Max Flournoy scores on a layup on a feed from Nate Hall. Flourney is really quick.
7:34 p.m. - Ortega has now played 12 guys in the game. Edison can’t buy a basket and the Herd leads 9-3.
7:36 p.m. - Noticed that former Herd soccer player Stephanie Lopez-Cox’ team USA jersey is hanging enclosed in a frame on the south wall of the Cartwright. She was No. 6. On the other side hangs the professional football jerseys of Adrian Ross and Lance Briggs, both former Herd players.
7:41 p.m. - As per usual, it is getting warm in the Cartwright, so it’s time to return to the south gym. Jacob sinks a three-pointer at the buzzer and Elk Grove is leading Edison, 16-13 after the first quarter.
7:42 p.m. - Walk into the south gym just as the halftime buzzer is sounding. Elk Grove leads Florin 32-13. Suitos and Schuring both have nine points.
7:49 p.m. - Return to the Cartwright. It’s 23-17, Elk Grove, with 4:14 left in the first half. Edison’s coach is ticked at his post player who just hammered Hall on a pull-up jumper. Notice last year’s leading scorer, Yemi Akilo, is in the stands. Probably home for the Holidays.
7:56 p.m. - Josh Hallberg sinks a short jumper after a nice feed from Alex Angell. Elk Grove leads 27-23 with 42 seconds left in the half.
7:57 p.m. - Angell steals a pass after an Edison player goes into the stands to save a loose ball. Angell’s shot rattles through for a 29-28 lead at halftime. Jacob has 10 points and Hall has five.
8:01 p.m. - Walk with Leach back to the girls’ game. It’s now 41-13, Elk Grove, with three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Florin’s really struggling. On one possession, the Lady Herd had three shots at the bucket and out-hustled the Panthers for rebounds each time. Robards keeps the ball alive for a fourth shot opportunity. Florin comes up with a rebound and to add to its futility, the player grabbing the outlet pass steps on the sideline and it’s Lady Herd ball, again.
8:08 p.m. - Schuring misses a shot at the buzzer, but Elk Grove leads 41-14 after three periods.
8:17 p.m. – Back to the boys’ game. Hall steals the ball and lays it up on the other end. Elk Grove is ahead 39-28 with 2:01 left in the third.
8:19 p.m. - Crowd is now in the game, pretty loud. STOMP! First time Ortega needed to get the attention of his players on the court and had to slam his foot on the floor to get their attention. It’s becoming this young coach’s trademark.
8:21 p.m. - Return to the south gym. Lady Herd cruising by 22 points with 1:40 left.
8:23 p.m. - Laura Bell hits a three-pointer with eight seconds remaining. Buzzer and it is now final, 46-21. Elk Grove is 5-4, snapping their three-game losing streak. Florin is still looking for its first win.
Time for Buck’s first post-game interview as a varsity coach and boast about their defensive effort. “That’s our point of emphasis,” she said. “We’re not the best shooters, so in order for us to be successful this season, we have to get after them. We have to get the teams to turn the balls over and get easy baskets the other way.”
8:28 p.m. - Back to the Cartwright for the end of the boys’ game. Elk Grove’s margin is 15 points with 6:16 left in the game. Edison was shutout in the third quarter, 12-0.
8:33 p.m. - Jacob hits a bank shot for the Herd’s biggest margin, 49-34, with just under three minutes left.
8:41 p.m. - Hall is fouled on the defensive end. Makes two free throws on the double bonus. Edison hits a consolation three-pointer. Elk Grove, which is now 4-3, wins 55-42. Hall leads all scorers with 20 points. Jacob added 15.
“I use (Hall) every way imaginable,” Ortega said after a quick post-game meeting. “He’s our guy. (Jacob and Hall) will have to play that way every night for us to be successful. That’s the best they’ve played together.”
8:55 p.m. - Akilo says he isn’t playing basketball at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. He is studying to become a city planner. Elk Grove will need him. The city, that is.
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of egcitizen.com.
Jay wrote on Dec 25, 2008 7:04 PM:
" The Lady Herd played 4 games in the San Lusi Obispo tournament, not 3 as mentioned in the article. They won their first game against Bakersfield 38 - 24. "
John Hull wrote on Dec 31, 2008 1:12 PM:
" My apologies to Amanda and Zach. I knew his name was Zach, but when writing this story had just heard Joe Buck interviewed on radio. He's got a boy, Tom, and his dad, the late Cardinal broadcaster, Jack, was one of the best in the business.
On the San Luis Obispo tourney I was told they lost all three. Sorry!
The girls look really good and could win 20 games this season. "
On the San Luis Obispo tourney I was told they lost all three. Sorry!
The girls look really good and could win 20 games this season. "
Jay wrote on Dec 25, 2008 7:00 PM: