Shafter 44, Rosamond 45

Shafter nearly knocked off the defending tournament champs in their first game of the second day. The game was held in the old gym. The old lady has certain charms and felt full and loud for a tournament game in December. More on the gym later.

The locals started slow as Rosamond built a double digit lead before the Generals registered a point. The Shafter boys found their footing at the end of the first quarter, however, and cut the lead to 12-8. The Roadrunners stretched the lead in the second and third periods and entered the fourth with a 37-24 advantage. Shafter's pressure had been solid and effective, but the Generals had not been able to score consistently. In the fourth period, the Generals erupted for 20 points. Adrian Trujillo knocked down a couple of big three pointers and Cristian Barrios made at least one.

Trujillo was making shots all game. At one point in the second half, Rosamond coach Johnny Johnson was enough bothered by his team's inability to find number 20 in his 2-3 zone that he instructed them to pick up man. This experiment ended quickly as Angelo Senoran and Cristian Barrios quickly blew by Roadrunner guards and forced a return to the zone.

With just over a minute to play, Shafter still trailed by 8. However, a couple of clutch three pointers brought the margin down to 3 with the Generals in possession of the ball. Trujillo worked to get open, and finally found some shooting room no less than 8 feet beyond the top of the arc. He quickly squared and launched a shot that seemed to go halfway down before bouncing out and into the hands of Eder Pulido, who was fouled with three tenths of a second left on the clock. The big Shafter freshman had to make the first. He did. Then he needed to miss and set up his fellows for a tip. Eder gave it a good try, cleverly aiming to put the ball off the backboard first, then the side of the rim into the middle of the key, but it is a difficult thing to try to miss after years of trying to do the opposite. The shot banked in and the game ended in disappointment for Shafter.