From the sports archives: Cañada college men's basketball tops Skyline

Skyline, after a tough preseason, had opened Coast-North Conference play with two wins in its first three games and had an opportunity stay on the heels on the conference leaders.

Cañada was one of the bigger non-conference surprises as the Colts went 11-3. But they stumbled out of the gate in conference play, dropping two of their first three.

The game Wednesday went back and forth, with neither team leading by more than handful of points. But Cañada made the plays down the stretch and held off the Trojans for an 80-73 victory at College of San Mateo — which serves as Cañada’s home court as a new gym is built on the Redwood City campus.

“It was big for us in the sense I wanted to make sure we got the message that our team identity doesn’t change,” said Cañada’s first-year head coach Matt Lee, a 2003 Aragon graduate.

“Just because we lost to City College (of San Francisco) and Chabot didn’t mean we were going to blow everything up that we do.”

What the Colts like to do is play tough defense, control the boards, get out on the break and knock down 3s.

The Colts accomplished that. They got the stops down the stretch when they needed them, they outrebounded the Skyline 40-28 and they connected on 10 of 28 from behind the arc.

Skyline, despite nailing a school-record 17 3-pointers in a 107-71 win over Ohlone-Fremont last week, did what it wanted to do — which is pound the ball inside and take the ball to the hoop.

The Trojans’ biggest problem Wednesday night, however, was finishing around the rim. Skyline missed six layups in the first half and the Trojans’ problem continued in the second as they misfired on five more.

“We needed to make more shots,” said Skyline head coach Justin Piergrossi. “[Cañada] shot the ball pretty well.”

Despite their struggles, the Trojans stayed in the game to the end. With the Colts nursing a 75-73 lead with just over two minutes to play, Skyline’s finishing problems became Cañada’s as Noah Conner’s 3-point attempt was halfway down before it popped back out and Josh Blueford had the same thing happen to him.

It looked as Kaden Bradley suffered a similar fate when his 3-point attempt with just under a minute was short — but it hit the iron and crawled over and in to push the Colts’ advantage to 78-73.

When Lovevele Shackleford picked off pass and went the other way for a fastbreak layup with 22 seconds left to go up 80-73, it iced the first conference win for Cañada.

“We needed to play for 40 minutes,” Lee said. “At this point of the season … it’s more the mental focus (that is important).”

Cañada (2-2 Coast-North, 15-5 overall) was led by Blueford, who scored 14 of his 16 points in the first half. He was one of four Colts to finish in double figure. Conner and Shackleford each finished with 13 and Bradley added 12.

“(Blueford) had been coming off the bench, but with (Sean) Orr hurt, he’s been moved into the starting lineup. He shoots with confidence from his spots,” Lee said. “(Shackleford) has really been working on his game. For him it was a confidence thing.”

Skyline (2-2, 8-12) was led by post player Rodney Lawrence, a freshman out of Jefferson who scored a game-high 21 points.

“He’s come on the last couple of weeks,” Piergrossi said. “He just gives us a ton of energy.”

Jacob Salinero (Half Moon Bay) added 15 points for the Trojans, while Noah Haynesworth finished with 14.

It was Skyline that threw the first proverbial punch in the opening half. After Cañada had knocked down a pair of 3s for a 6-4 lead, Salinero drained a trey to spark a 8-0 run that was punctuated by a Lawrence fastbreak dunk that gave the Trojans a 13-6 lead.

But the Colts scored 7 of the next 9 points to get right back into the game and following a Haynesworth tip-in for the Trojans, the Colts put together a 9-0 run of their own. Blueford started it with a 3-pointer from the corner and then a pair of coast-to-coast layups from Shackleford and Conner gave Cañada a 23-17 advantage with 11:11 remaining the first half.

Over the last six minutes of the opening period, there were two ties and one lead change as Cañada went into the break with a 45-38 lead.

The Trojans turned up the defensive pressure to start the second half, getting three steals that fueled a 8-0 run that saw them cut their deficit to 49-48 with 16:16 left in the game.

But the Colts regained the momentum and with the scored at 63-all wih 8:37 left, Cañada’s Shackleford hit 1 of 2 free throws for a 64-63 lead before Conner buried a 3 to give the Colts a little breathing room, 67-63.

A Salinero putback off a scramble with 3:10 left cut Skyline’s deficit to one, 72-71, but Cañada finished the game on a 8-2 run to pull out the win.

“I thought we played really hard,” Piergrossi said. “We were in position to win on the road.”