For most of their final non-league game of the season at San Juan High School last Saturday, the Cordova High School boys’ basketball team was on target to slow down the backcourt shooters on the Bradshaw Christian squad.

But in the fourth quarter, the Lancers let their guard down—pardon the pun—that allowed the Pride to shoot from behind the arc. That led to a 78-67 loss as part of the one day Common Good Classic Tournament.

After three quarters, Cordova (11-9 overall, 3-0 in the Sierra Valley Conference) led 51-50. For most of the final quarter, the Lancers continued to put pressure on the Pride’s offense. But with three minutes left in the game, Bradshaw Christian penetrated the Lancers’ defense that led to five, three-pointers.

“I thought we did a great job holding them (in the first half),” said Cordova coach Fletcher Johnson, whose squad led 35-33 at halftime. “We had talked with the guys about not leaving shooters wide open. They weren’t rotating at all (in the final quarter).”

In addition, the Pride canned 7-of-7 free throws that included two coming off a technical foul off a Cordova player with two minutes left in the game. The Pride outscored the Lancers 28-16 in the final eight minutes of the contest.

Lancer guard DeAnte Wilkins finished with a team-high 27 points. Ben Danielyman followed with eight points and Damion Baldwin and Jason Novik followed with seven points each. Mike Brown had six points, Joe Gomez four, Najee Clark and Kyle Lorena three each and Slavik Demchyk two.

Cordova 54, Union Mine 45
On Jan. 15th in a home conference game, defense was also huge for the Lancers against the visiting Diamondbacks. While its offense erupted for 26 points in the first two quarters, Cordova held Union Mine to a combined 16 points.

“We played very intense,” Johnson said.

Three Lancers scored in double figures; Baldwin and Novik had 13 points each and Wilkins had 12. William Moore followed with seven points, Danielyan six and Gomez three.

Conference Opener
On Jan. 12th, Cordova posted a 79-67 win over Galt to start SVC action.

Earlier this week, the Lancers hosted El Dorado in another conference game.

Tonight, Friday, at 7 p.m., Cordova will take on the hottest team in both the conference and section in Liberty Ranch, which is 19-0, its best record of a boys basketball team since the school opened its doors toward the end of the 2000s.

Cordova ends the first round of conference play at home against Rosemont next Tuesday. Game time is also scheduled for 7 p.m.