Date: Feb. 6
Opponent: El Dorado Adventist
Location: Home
Result: Country Day won 75-44 to end the season at 5-15 overall and 2-12 in league.
Country Day scoring: Junior Ted Zhou 29, junior Jackson Crawford 16, sophomore Martin Cao 10, junior Aaron Graves 7, junior Chris Wilson 6, sophomore Max Wu 5, sophomore Avinash Krishna 2.
Inside info from sophomore point guard Krishna: “We won because, first of all, we were just better. Secondly, because of their conduct, the referees called everything against them.
“In the beginning, there was just a bunch of trash talk (by El Dorado Adventist). Soon, it escalated to disrupting the game. One player was confused about a free-throw sequence and started questioning the ref about what went down. This lasted for a solid minute. After this, the ref started to make more calls against them.
“At one point, their coach accused the ref of not knowing the game or how to call fouls and was getting in his face for several minutes. Following this, every call not made in favor of the opposing team led to a large groan from the opposing crowd and many outbursts.”
Comment by El Dorado Adventist coach Craig Johnson: “I could write an entire article about that game. Sacramento’s kids were great. It was never about them. Unfortunately, we had two (refs) who were in way above their heads. I absolutely asked one ref whether he knew the rules of the game.
“We had a parent in the girls game — he’s mouthy at most of our games — who was asked to leave the gym. From that moment on, the officials just had it in for us. I felt they ruined it for our kids. They started calling stuff in the girls game, and it carried over.
“I don’t tolerate trash-talking. I understand that I don’t hear everything, but we’ve never had a problem with kids on our team saying stuff. They play in fear. For the most part, they’re inexperienced.”
Inside info from sophomore point guard Wu: “Our defense was good; I had two steals and a charge. We didn’t have too many turnovers, and we rebounded really well. Our free throws were 7 of 13. We missed a lot of layups, but most importantly, we handled the ball well.”
Comment by coach David Ancrum: “We rebounded really well. We delivered offensive rebounds, and defensive rebounds were also very good. The ball movement also was very good.
“We can still improve on becoming more of an offensive threat, being able to produce more easy points.”
—By Ming Zhu
