Wildcats slip past Cougars
The graduation of Tony Eackles left Las Vegas High’s boys basketball team looking for a go-to player.
Consider the position filled.
Tyree Anderson’s driving layup with four seconds left Tuesday lifted the Wildcats to a 63-61 home win over Coronado.
“He’s taken over for where Tony was last year at the end of the game,” Las Vegas coach Jason Wilson said. “We’ve got to get him the ball a little bit differently because he doesn’t create as well as Tony, but if we can get him shots, he’s the guy that we want the ball in his hands at the end of the game.”
Anderson and the Wildcats struggled offensively in the first half. Las Vegas led 26-25 at the break but was just 9-for-35 from the field (25.7 percent) in the half.
“In the first half, we played good defensively and we missed a lot of layups,” Wilson said. “I just told them to play through it and keep shooting the ball.”
The Wildcats came out on fire in the third quarter, hitting their first four shots, including a pair of 3-pointers to extend the lead to 36-28.
Las Vegas hit all five of its 3-point attempts in the period and led by as much as 15.
“We just started putting it in the hole in the third quarter,” Wilson said. “And then we started taking bad shots when we got the lead. We need to learn when and when not to shoot.”
Coronado fought back to take a 58-57 lead on a follow slam by Brandon Glanz with 2:29 to go.
“To their credit they battled back and got in it,” Wilson said.
Anderson had 22 points and seven rebounds, Tanner Chauncey added 11 points, and Hasaan Henderson had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Glanz led Coronado with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Austin Nelson added 10 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
