Glendale’s basketball team took part in the Tip Off Tournament against Miramar College and Santa Barbara College on Friday and Saturday where they showcased their amazing offensive prowess, defeating Santa Barbara 100-86.
Glendale lost their first game against Miramar in a devastating last second shot by the opponent.
“We lost to them at the buzzer in a real fluky ending,” said Coach Brian Beauchemin. “We didn’t play very well nor did we play good defense.”
Fortunately, they bounced right back and defeated Santa Barbara the next day.
The Santa Barbara game wasn’t exactly smooth sailing the entire time. Halfway through the first half, the Vaqueros found themselves down by 15 points. That persuaded Beauchemin to call a time out to talk to and remind his team about the talent that they possess. It was all uphill from that point, as they ended the half leading the game 52-49.
“I called that timeout and told the team to trust our press break, and to just keep going at it,” said Beauchemin.
During the two games, hoop fans caught a glimpse of the two rising stars in the Vaqueros’ basketball team. Sophomores Markus Monroe and Josh Guillory led the offense in points scored.
Monroe, who plays shooting guard, led the team with 33 points, coupled with five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Monroe set the tempo of the game. He handled the ball most of the time and literally took the game into his own hands when they were down.
“After losing last night [to Miramar] I took it upon myself to play harder, and to get everybody going,” said Monroe. “We knew our press offense would get us a lot of good looks. Michael Cotton hit five big three-pointers and that got us really going.”
The other star, Josh Guillory, the sophomore center, had a monster game against Santa Barbara. He scored 29 points, gathered 18 rebounds and delivered six assists. On the defensive side, he blocked twoshots and stole three balls.
Talk about filling up the stats sheet.
To say that Guillory was magnificent is an understatement. He was unstoppable when he got position under the basket. The only chance Santa Barbara had of stopping him was by fouling him, and even that wasn’t that successful as he made five out of his eight free throw shots. It’s just simply too hard to pick the best play of the game since there were so many high flying dunks that Guillory threw down.
It was definitely a fantastic game, especially for someone who sat in the bench his entire first season.
“Coach has been on me the entire time I’ve been here, and that’s okay with me since I came to work hard,” said Guillory.
“Our expectations here are always high,” said Beauchemin when asked about what his expectations were for the rest of the season. “Goals and expectations are great to have, we just have to be smart about it and take it one step at a time. These guys are already looking forward to the game Saturday, and I’m worried about practice Monday.”
Guillory had almost the same vision of Glendale Vaqs future, he stated, “I can definitely see us winning state, especially if we keep playing at this level, it’s definitely possible.”
Glendale’s first game of the season will be against San Diego Mesa College on Saturday.
