With the middle-school boys of St. Vincent’s basketball team cheering from behind the home bench, the varsity boys comfortably defeated San Rafael Tuesday night.
Redwood originally came in contact with the underprivileged St. Vincent students by donating basketball equipment earlier this season, and have continued to stay in touch.
“Those guys motivated us to win,” said head coach Steve Compagno. “We went and saw their game last Saturday and encouraged them to play hard. When we saw them come to the game tonight, we knew we had to play as hard as we could.”
The Giants combined disruptive defense with a well-balanced offensive attack to produce a final score of 58-37. Redwood capitalized on San Rafael’s mistakes by scoring 19 points off of the Bulldogs’ 21 turnovers.
“If you don’t win with the other team having that many turnovers, that’s pretty pathetic,” senior Molefi Thompson said.
Starting the game on a 14-3 run, Redwood kept the lead throughout the game, finished the first quarter up 18-7 and entered halftime leading 38-16.
“We’re pretty quick, so if we push the pace and make them play at our speed we have a chance to be more successful,” Compagno said.
Redwood entered the third quarter with the same intensity, ending with a 49-25 lead that eventually led to the 21-point victory.
Thompson led the team in with 14 points, four assists, and four steals to add to senior Peter Kennedy’s 13 points.
Redwood (2-0 in MCAL, 7-7 overall) travels to Branson tonight at 7:30 for its third league matchup.
