SJAA Top Dogs: Weston Ranch basketball dominates Edison in league opener
By the fourth quarter, Edison basketball fans started trickling out of the gym. They saw enough of the Viking's San Joaquin Athletic Association opener against Weston Ranch that ended in a 94-67 blowout.
Last season when these two teams met to open up league play, it was standing room only as the two SJAA top dogs played a close game. This year, the Cougars are out to prove that they are in a league of their own and are looking to be frontrunners for the league title.
“I know you guys keep calling it a rivalry, but it’s not really a rivalry. Edison is just like any other team,” said Nicholas Podesta, Weston Ranch’s boys' basketball head coach. “They got one overtime win ever over our program and the other games are not even really that close. It’s not like we’re up for this game any more than our other opponents.”
Here are the key takeaways from Weston Ranch’s victory over league foe Edison which marks its tenth win of the season.
The best guard in the section
A big difference maker for the Cougars this season has been El Camino transfer guard Mateen Rafiq. The 6-foot senior is their lead scorer, averaging close to 22 points per game so far this season. He continues to be a leader for them against an aggressive Vikings defense.
Rafiq led all scorers with 29 points, lighting Edison up from beyond the arc with six made threes. He drained three of those three-pointers in the third quarter to help his team outscore the Vikings 27-11. That was the nail in the coffin for any potential comeback Edison could’ve hoped to make in the second half after closing the gap to 10 points at halftime.
“In these tough matchups when you get a transfer that is the best guard in the section, I mean, it’s hard to deal with,” said Diondre Hawthorne, Edison boys’ basketball head coach. “I don’t think we played bad but you know you can’t trade threes with twos and that’s what happened today. Those threes added up.”
The Cornell commit attributes his long ball threat during Wednesday's game to his teammates. Despite playing less than a year together, Rafiq has gelled quickly with the Cougars and has slowly but surely found his role within their offense.
“My teammates and I really like to push each other and practice and get a lot of game-like reps,” Rafiq said. “Every day we enjoy competing at practice and then when we go live in games we have each other’s backs. Every game we just lean on each other, top to bottom.”
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Edison in search of consistency
The Vikings tried to stay in the game but according to Hawthorne, they lacked consistency in doing so. After pulling within 10 points at halftime, they came out in the third quarter scoreless for the first two minutes. That’s where all hope for a close game was lost.
Another big reason — beyond the lack of consistency — is also the lack of varsity experience for the Vikings squad. After losing some of its seniors due to transfer, sophomore Damarcus Cobb Jr. has the most varsity reps for Edison. He ended the game with 10 points and three rebounds.
Outside of Cobb, Chavez transfer Terrell Tek and juniors David White ll and Kwazi Moses were leading the Vikings offensively. They finished the game with 14 points apiece.
“(Terrell) Tek obviously is one of our better players coming over and he’s doing good,” Hawthorne said. “It’s only his second game, so he still has to knock some rust off. We got a lot of more games, so once this game comes around again hopefully we can split as we did last year.”
Record reporter Shannon Belt covers sports. She can be reached at sbelt@recordnet.com or on Twitter @ShannonBelt3. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Weston Ranch basketball blows past league foe Edison to open SJAA play
