Los Alamitos goes to 4-0 in Sunset League
FOUNTAIN VALLEY – In the opening week of the season, the Los Alamitos High boys basketball team lost to Mater Dei, Mission Viejo and Capistrano Valley, which are currently ranked No.1, 2 and 3, respectively, in the county.
Eight weeks later, the Griffins' 0-3 start is paying off. They remained unbeaten in the tight Sunset League with a 72-56 victory at Fountain Valley on Wednesday.
"It's kind of counterproductive in the sense that we play a lot of (good) teams and lose a lot of games early on," Los Alamitos coach Eddie Courtemarche said. "But we want to challenge ourselves. It's a learning experience and I'm glad we did it. It gives us some confidence. We wanted to make sure that anything a Sunset League team threw at us, we were able to counter that."
They countered the Barons with an array of perimeter shots and good defense in the first quarter while building a 22-9 lead. Los Alamitos' shooting exploits continued in the second quarter, with guard Chris Kapano scoring 13 points by halftime.
Fountain Valley guard Josh Armstrong hit a 3-pointer midway through the fourth to make it 59-50. But Kapano responded with a 3 as the Griffins went on an 11-2 run to seal the victory. Kapano finished with 18 points, guard Jack Emmons had 15 and forward Ryan Hurst had 12.
Fountain Valley forward Nathan Moss scored 19 points and Armstrong had 17.
"They really shot the heck out of it in the first half," said Coach Roger Holmes of the Barons (13-6, 2-2). "It dug us in a hole. It would be easy to fold, but we did a good job hanging in there."
The Griffins (10-10, 4-0) improved to .500 for the third time this season. They are the only team in the league without a loss as they head into Friday's showdown with No.9 Edison.
"I was hoping the tough preseason schedule would give us some character coming into league," Courtemarche said. "We learn not to pay attention to our record early on."
Contact the writer: amaya@ocregister.com
