Eagles blast the Miners

The West Valley varsity boys basketball team came in ready to play on Tuesday against the Yreka Miners.

None of them expected the domination that would follow. The Eagles outplayed the Miners 31-06 in the first quarter, and left them in the dust for the rest of the game. The match ended with the Eagles up 42 points, 80-38.

Eagles Coach Josh Schwerdt said his team came in ready for a competitive battle against Yreka, a team he said has shown impressive play in the league.

"They beat Lassen the first game of the year at Lassen. Then they hung with CV and they hung with Corning, so we thought we'd have a game tonight," Schwerdt said. "But we just shot their lights out. We just played really well."

The Eagles outplayed Yreka from the get-go. They consistently made great shots, and stole the ball back from Yreka almost every time the team got their hands on it.

The Eagles lead widened in the second, even as West Valley's starters began taking turns on the bench.

"We still wanted to work on things, but at the same time you still want to get everybody in," said Schwerdt.

Donny Anondson led West Valley (4-0, 13-5) with 21 points as the entire team got in the score book.

Tyler Stevenson added 13 for the Eagles and Ben Bradshaw chipped in 10.

Coach Schwerdt was pleased with his team all-around.

"The starters didn't play at all in the 4th quarter, which is nice, and the subs and reserves came in and played extremely well," he said. "We want to execute at that point. We take the press off and execute, and they did a really good job."

After 6 consecutive wins and an 4-0 undefeated league record, the Eagles coach said he isn't afraid of his athletes getting cocky.

"We've had enough games where we've looked bad that I don't they will get cocky," he said. "And we have our own goals that we are shooting for. They have their own goals that they want to achieve."

Friday loss to Corning

Later in the week, the Eagles undefeated league record was broken.

The team played Corning on Friday, a top contender Northern Athletic League.

"Everybody says Corning is the favorite, so it's a big game for us," said Schwerdt on Tuesday. "That's the test, so we'll see what happens."

The Eagles (4-1 league, 13-6 overall) had a chance to maintain its perfect run through the NAL season, but they were edged out by Corning due to rebounding and other defensive struggles, 60-58.