The visiting Mayer Middle School Wildcats didn’t stand a chance against the West Sedona School boys basketball team Thursday, Nov. 18, as Tristan Decker and company put on a show, 86-19.
“We shot a lot of layups,” West Sedona Head Coach Pedro Ortega Sr. said. “Mayer isn’t that strong of a team but our boys still played well.”
After finishing 2-1 at a preseason tournament at Big Park Community School on Nov. 6, the Wildcats dropped their season opener Nov. 16 to Beaver Creek School, 47-20.
West Sedona rebounded Thursday thanks to the efforts of Decker, who scored 22 points and pulled four rebounds against Mayer.
At times, it seemed the eighth-grader couldn’t be stopped, shooting reverse layup after reverse layup to help his team put up 86 points.
Eighth-grader Tucker Davis was on top of his game as well, scoring 19 points, all of which came in the second half of play.
West Sedona jumped out to a 25-2 lead after the first quarter of play and led 42-7 after the first half.
Davis began to put his game together defensively, recording four steals which led to several layups and a 26-3 run in the third quarter for West Sedona.
The 68-10 lead was enough for Ortega who called off the dogs midway through the third period and played many of his bench players.
“The second half I got to put my second unit in,” Ortega said. “Mayer doesn’t have a ‘B’ team so it was good we were able to put it away early.”
The second group didn’t have a problem either against the Mayer players, outscoring them 44-12 in the second half which led to the 86-19 win.
Other standouts included eighth-grader Josh Cacciatore, who scored 11 points and had four rebounds and two steals, while Dylan McNeil had 12 points, two rebounds and a steal.
With the victory, West Sedona improves its record to 1-1 overall on the season.
Next up, the Wildcats enter their second game of a six-game home stand when they play host to Camp Verde Middle School on Tuesday, Nov. 30.
Camp Verde handed the Wildcats a 38-36 loss Nov. 6 in the preseason tournament at Big Park.
“Camp Verde is a good squad and they’ll be tough to beat,” Ortega said.
Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m.
