DOWNEY – According to Downey head coach Larry Shelton, the Downey-Warren basketball game is the biggest match up of the year every year regardless of the two team’s records.

In this case he could be dead on as his team kept Warren at arm’s length with a 49-43 win at Warren last Wednesday.

The win for Downey puts them right in the playoff picture with five games to go and set up a very important night out with the Paramount Pirates this past Wednesday.

“The kids came back [after the Lynwood loss] with a solid effort tonight,” Shelton said. “This is the one we had to win to create a little separation between us and the teams behind us. It’s setting up a big game against Paramount.”

Warren showed throughout the night that it was a much improved team from last year and in fact had a lead after the first quarter. All night long Downey had trouble getting shots for their guards, but forward Edgar Ruiz had one of his best nights of the season scoring 19 points and pulling down eight rebounds.

“[Ruiz was] huge obviously.” Shelton said. “Warren knows us so well, and we know them so well that you know when you play them it’s going to be a knock-down, drag-out, low-scoring game. We couldn’t get our shooters shots tonight. Warren did a great job defensively and the only place we could go was inside and Edgar made them pay and it’s a good thing he was here tonight.”

Downey’s starting guards Josh Carreto and the team’s leading scorer Tyler Ellis, combined for only 3 points in the game. Their difficulty to score from the outside gave Ruiz a chance to shine in the paint and Ruiz made the best of it.

“They couldn’t guard in the post and my teammates looked for me and got me the ball,” said the junior forward Ruiz.

After Ruiz exposed Warren’s inability to guard down low in the post, forward Dami Adefeso and guard David Rivera attacked, combining for 16 points and six rebounds of their own.

By no means was it a clean game by Downey with their being a huge discrepancy between the two teams in fouls and turnovers. Downey committed 22 fouls to Warren’s 14 fouls, and turned the ball over 14 times to Warren’s eight giveaways. Downey also lost the rebound battle grabbing 25 rebounds to Warren’s 29.

“We just had to battle,” Shelton said. “Overcoming the differences in fouls was a big part of tonight’s game.”

It was apparent on the night that Downey would have to overcome their sloppiness after Warren opened up with a 7-0 run lead by 5 points from Warren’s Moises Benitez. Downey quickly responded after a timeout with a 6-0 run sparked by 4 points from Ruiz.

Downey struggled handling the ball in the opening minutes turning over the ball three times that all lead to points off turnovers and the Vikings found themselves in a 2-point deficit, behind 10-8 going into the second quarter.

Opening up the second quarter with a 6-0 run quickly grabbed the lead for Downey and they tightened up their defense making Warren take tough shots from the perimeter. The Vikings managed to keep the Bears at arms length with more easy points in the paint by Adefeso and Ruiz, but weren’t able to pull away in the quarter because of some sloppiness at the end of the quarter.

Warren, trying to break their 24-game losing streak in the San Gabriel Valley League, continued their peskiness getting second chance points from offensive rebounds, but the Bears were unable to make any kind of run with their only starter Benitez reaching double digits in points for the game.

In the third quarter, the Vikings opened up their largest lead of the game, 8 points, in order to keep Warren at bay after some nervous moments in the fourth quarter when Adefeso, one of Downey’s top scorers fouled out with 7:08 left.

The win for Downey keeps them in the playoff picture with the second half of league play on its way this week.

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Published: February 5, 2010 - Volume 8 - Issue 42