Boys Basketball: Taft drubs Clemente, one victory from 20-win mark

Updated: February 19, 2012 9:44PM

Twenty is a magic number for Taft. During Frank Hood’s heyday in the late 1980s and early ‘90s with stars like Kenny Pratt and Howard Moore, the Eagles routinely reached that number.

A new decade and a new group of young stars is eager to get that benchmark.

Behind a dominating 18-2, second-quarter run, Taft had four players score in double-figures and routed Clemente 71-50 in the Conference Challenge Shootout Sunday at Gordon Tech.

The victory ran the Eagles’ season-mark to 19-8, with a final regular-season game Thursday against Jones before the start of the state tournament. “That’s [what] one of our biggest goals this year was — winning 20 games,“ senior forward Tim Reamer said.

Reamer scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to power the Eagles’ attack. Highly-regarded sophomore John Joyce shook off a poor-shooting game to finish with 17 points, nine rebounds and four steals.

Taft struggled at the start, hurt when junior guard Joshua Doss was forced to leave in the first quarter after suffering a leg injury. He did not return and was scoreless. “That was a big deal that he got hurt,” Joyce said.

Behind junior guard Greg Fleming (16 points), the Wildcats (13-13) came out on fire, hitting several early three-pointers in running out to an 8-3 lead. “They were hitting some threes against us, shooting from beyond where we had our defense set up,” Reamer said. “We just had to adjust and play defense the way we are capable, because we know that’s how we’re going to win games.”

Reamer’s basket in traffic gave the Eagles a 13-11 lead after the first quarter. It set up a dominant second-quarter burst. Beginning with reserve guard Sebastian Laszcz’s three-pointer from the right wing, Taft limited Clemente to a single basket in the first six minutes of the second quarter during its game-changing 18-2 run.

Senior guard Pierrenzo Pozzi ended the second quarter in style with a deep three-pointer for a 36-19 Taft lead at the break. Pozzi scored eight of his 10 points in the first half.

“Pierre did a great job of running the top of our press and also leading our press break,” Joyce said.

Senior 6-6 center Kevin Siudut scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half for the Eagles. He was limited in the second half by a hip pointer. Joyce scored 12 of his points in the second half. Eight Eagles scored and Clemente never got the game within single-digits in the second half.

Jordan Henderson contributed seven points for the Wildcats. Devin Coleman and Chris Wimes added six points each.

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