by 
Southeast Valley Ledger
There were bound to be some growing pains for the Combs boys’ basketball team that is young and inexperienced in one way or another. Several questionable and outright missed officiating calls threw several Yotes’ players off their games during last Tuesday’s 66 – 63 defeat to Walden Grove in pool play of the Poston Butte Thanksgiving Classic.
Dealing with adversity is something all athletes have to learn to overcome, especially the leaders on a team. For the Coyotes’ leaders it’s a role that’s new to them, while other players are playing extended minutes for the first time at the varsity level.
“This is the first time we’ve had to deal with some adversity and I was kind of looking forward to it,” Combs’ head coach Kirk Fauske said after his team’s first loss of the season. “I’ve seen from this team (in the first two games) what we can do, and it’s going to be special once we’re dialed in, but we needed to experience a little adversity and a tournament is the perfect place to have some youngsters grow up real quick.”
The first half was filled with scoring runs by both teams and several lead changes without either team leading by more than two points during about a five minute stretch in the middle of it.
After a timeout, and trailing 16 – 14, with about six minutes before halftime, the Yotes went on a 10 – 2 run to take a 24 – 18 lead, but Walden Grove then went on a 10 – 4 run of their own to take a 28 – 24 lead at the half.
For the Coyotes, who scored 71 points in a season-opening win against Florence the night before, it was a sloppy offensive performance in their second game of the year. Fauske again attributed his team’s play to its inability to handle things not going its way.
“We weren’t ready to play,” he said. “Right from the start, Clayten [McCarthy] gets held and then gets called for a (questionable) charge. He picked up early foul trouble and that took him out of the game.”
“It’s part of the immaturity of being a young team; they don’t know how to bounce back from how the officials are calling a game,” Fauske continued. “Every game the referees are going to be different and we have to learn how to adjust to how they’re calling things.”
The Red Wolves opened a nine-point lead midway through the second half and extended it 15 points before the Coyotes starting looking like the team Fauske envisions, fighting back to get within five points late in the game.
A three-pointer at the final buzzer by McCarthy, a junior, who scored a game-high 19 points despite being in foul trouble or in Fauske’s doghouse for most of the night, accounted for the final three-point margin.
“I thought we really battled back,” Fauske said. “We were down 15 points and we fought back. It was just one of those games.”
One of a few positives from last Tuesday’s loss was the performance of sophomore Cory Pearson, who earned Player of the Game honors after going 5-of-7 from the field and 5-of-8 from the free-throw line to score 15 points in the game. He also had a team-high six rebounds and two blocks.
Pearson, like many other young Coyotes, is expected to log heavy minutes for the first time in his varsity career.
So far he is off to good start.
Upcoming schedule: Dec. 7 vs. Maricopa at Talking Stick Resort Arena (4:30 p.m.), Dec. 8 at Washington (7 p.m.), Dec. 9 vs. Chandler Prep (7:30 p.m.).
Andrew Luberda began writing for Copper Area News Publishers (CANP) in February 2013 after working 15 years in Healthcare Financial Management. Andy covers sports for 11 high schools. His stories are published in Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner and Superior Sun, in addition to the San Tan Valley Daily PRSS and CopperArea websites. Additionally, he has written human interest stories and business profiles. In May 2012, he earned an AAS in Sports Management at Central Arizona College before graduating with a BS in Communication from Arizona State University in 2014. He and his wife, Kelli, have three sons – AJ, Kyle, and Kade.
by by