Rowland shuts down Keppel in victory

BALDWIN PARK - When the Keppel High School boys basketball team was poised to make its patented fourth-quarter run, Rowland was there to stop it.

The Aztecs closed to within 10 points to start the fourth quarter, but Rowland had a run of its own en route to a 63-42 victory in pool play of the Sierra Vista-Baldwin Park tournament on Tuesday.

"We did hit some shots, they missed some shots and we were able to get boards and capitalize on them," Rowland coach Gordon Hamlow said. "We were fortunate to have that late run."

Raiders junior Jacky Tu scored the first six points of the fourth quarter and the Raiders started with a 10-2 run to build a 52-34 gap in the first 2:28 of the final quarter in a game played at Sierra Vista.

"We put the ball in the hole," Hamlow said.

Keppel did not help itself with its poor shooting. The Aztecs shot 33.3 percent (4 of 12) in the quarter and missed all five of their 3-point attempts.

"We don't have a post presence and when we don't make shots, that's when we're in trouble," Keppel coach Hung Duong said. "We didn't make very many shots."

That's the way it went the entire night for Keppel, which completed pool play 1-1. The Aztecs shot 26.1 percent (12 of 46) for the game. The typically sharpshooting Aztecs were just 25.0 percent (6 of 24) on 3-point attempts.

"We have to create a fast tempo if we're going to be successful and Rowland did a great job of handling our pressure,

The Raiders had a big hand in keeping the Aztecs off-balance.Click HERE for entire story!