Glendale dominated The Vaquero Men’s Basketball Tip-off Tournament by winning first place over Compton College, Victor Valley College, and Santa Barbara College on Nov. 12 and 13 at Glendale College.
On the first day of the tournament, Glendale played Victor Valley College, subduing them by a final score of 80 to 67.
At the beginning of the first half the Vaqueros struggled with a series of turnovers. Fortunately Victor Valley led the game only briefly.
A ground-shaking dunk by Victor Valley in the first half tied the score at 12-12. Fortunately, minutes later, GCC scored a three-point shot making the score 15-12.
When Glendale took the lead, they would never look back.
Throughout the game numerous fouls were called on both teams. It seemed like the score was mainly based on free throws, which Glendale made time after time.
“We did pretty well,” said point guard Danny Lawton. “Better than we expected. A little physical. Better than what I expected,” Lawton said in regards to Victor Valley’s performance.
Though Glendale managed to beat Victor Valley, the game would have been much less of a struggle had Glendale managed to eliminate several turnovers.
“We need to work on our turnovers,” said shooting guard Nate Bryant. “We played a very good team today,” he added. “If we run our plays right, we’ll win, but we need to work as a team.”
“Everything got better in the second half,” center Antonio Garrett said. The Vaqueros struggled in the first half as each team fought to take the lead throughout the game. “We got back in transition pretty well,” he added. “We’ve got to stay on transition. That’s what it’s all about.”
The Vaqueros smoothened out the rough edges of their play, and went on to lead numerous times throughout the second half.
“We had little jitters,” Coach Brian Beauchemin said. But the team “got past that,” he added. “Everyone’s feeling things out.”
Earlier that day, Santa Barbara College was slaughtered by Compton College. The Vaquero win against Victor Valley College would mean that the Vaquero’s would play Compton the following day.
“It’s going to be an up and down game,” Beauchemin said. “We’ve got to have patience.”
The following day Glendale faced a challenging game against Compton. As Beauchemin said the day before, it was going to be an up and down game.
Fortunately in overtime, Glendale beat Compton by a final score of 98-91 and won the tournament. Second place went to Compton College with third place going to Santa Barbara College. Glendale is certainly off to a promising start this season.
