Just six game into the season, the Sierra Lutheran boys' basketball team faced off against Whittell for the third time Monday night.
If the first half was any indication, the Falcons are learning quickly. Sierra Lutheran battled to a 12-12 tie through the first quarter and stayed within striking distance through the second before Whittell, a 2A school, put the game away in the second half, cruising to a 71-46 victory at the St. Gall Catholic Church Auditorum.
"The score just isn't indicative of how we played," first-year Sierra Lutheran coach Alan Reed said. "We're a school of 53 kids
"It's a small step for our school to compete against a 2A school. We weren't in it at the end, but we played our hearts out the whole game and we really did play well in the first half."
Whittell, boasting a young and talented starting lineup this season with three sophomores, a freshman and a senior, got double-figure scoring from three players -- Thomas deMedeiros (16), Jordan Morgan (14) and Cody Nelson (12) -- on its way to the win.
Morgan opened the game with three baskets sandwiched around a nice jumper from Sierra Lutheran's Jonah Young to put Whittell up 6-2 early on.
Sierra Lutheran, however, battled back with a jumper just outside the lane from Bob DePaoli and a putback from Stephen Deterding to tie the game up.
Whittell jumped back out by four with baskets from Nelson and deMedeiros, but DePaoli hit another jumper and Young sank a pair of free throws to tie the score back up.
The teams traded baskets toward the end of the quarter with Whitell's Alex Potnick hitting an inside shot and DePaoli answering just before the buzzer.
Whittell continued to get balanced scoring from its lineup to start the second as deMedeiros, Mrogan and Nelson each scored to launch what would end up being a 10-1 run completed by another Morgan basket and a shot from Jeremy Dominguez.
The Falcons battled right back, going on a 6-3 run of their own over the last minute of the half, as David Zaninovich scored, Levi Grabow sank two free throws and DePaoli hit another late shot to close the score to 25-19 heading into the locker room.
"The kids are starting to emerge as a team," Reed said. "We had some stretches where they were starting to put things together. A couple of leaders are starting to emerge. It's a good thing.
"We just have to keep battling, keep working hard. We were really glad for the opportunity to play a larger school. This is something I wanted to do to help the kids build on something as the season progresses."
Whittell came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders, going on a 14-0 run to open the third quarter.
Zaninovich broke that up with a basket midway through the period to cut the score to 39-21, but Whittell's Blake Werle came right back down with a basket to put the Warriors back up by 20 at 41-21.
Sierra Lutheran scrapped right back in, though, as a Ben Martin free throw launcedan 11-2 run that extended into the fourth quarter and cut the lead to 43-31.
Zaninovich, DePaoli, Grabow, Nick DePaoli and Young each had points during the run.
Whittell built its lead back up to 15 over the next several minutes and then went on an 11-2 run of its own to put the game away.
Bob DePaoli led the Falcons with 13 points, Grabow had nine, Nick DePaoli had eight, David Zaninovich finished with seven, Young had six, Deterding had two and Martin finished with one.
Sierra Lutheran was without 6-5 senior Lane Pawloski in the game.
"We're missing our center, but we're hoping to get him back," Reed said. "He'd no doubt help us."
Sierra Lutheran gets a long layoff before traveling to the Sacramento area Dec. 29 to take on Lincoln High School's freshman squad.
"They're a 1,400-student school, so that will be a tough test for us," Reed said. "After that we go into league play. We were supposed to have a tournament in Austin this weekend, but there were some scheduling conflicts and it just didn't work out.
"It's tough to be off for that long, but we'll practice, stay busy and see what we can get going."
The Falcon's next home game will be Jan. 4 against Smith Valley at St. Gall to open Western 1A league play.
