Hamlet Nalbandyan
For a change, the Glendale High boys' basketball team had the
height advantage in a game.
But that didn't make much of a difference Friday night for Steve
Snodgress' squad, which boasts no player taller than 6 feet 2.
Against a scrappy and quick Alhambra Mark Keppel squad, the Nitros
were humiliated on their home court in a 53-30 setback.
The Aztecs, who have no player taller than 5-11, forced 20
turnovers and held Glendale to just 30% shooting from the field (12
of 40) to earn their second victory against Snodgress' group this
year.
Keppel (8-6) -- which defeated Glendale, 51-36, on Dec. 12 in a
Burbank Tournament game -- trailed, 15-11, midway through the second
quarter before blowing the game open.
The Aztecs closed the second quarter on a 12-0 run and opened the
third with six unanswered to build a 14-point lead.
"They did everything better than us," said Snodgress, pointing
specifically to the 18-0 run.
But the barrage didn't stop there. After a three-pointer by Tony
Munoz finally stopped the bleeding for the Nitros (5-8), Keppel
followed with a 15-4 run to put the game out of reach.
"I thought we played a pretty good defensive game in the first
half, but we just couldn't score," Snodgress said.
Credit that to Keppel's relentless press.
The Aztecs pressed the Nitros out of the gym, forcing 18 of
Glendale's 20 turnovers in the final three quarters.
In turn, the tenacious defense created many easy buckets for Coach
Hung Duong's squad, something the Nitros could only dream of.
"We love the up-tempo game," said Duong, whose squad outscored
Glendale, 23-9 in the third quarter and led by as much as 29 in the
fourth before emptying its bench.
"We feel we have the advantage when we can force the tempo because
of our quickness. This is the quickest team we've had here in a long
time."
But quickness was just the beginning of Glendale's demise. Not
only did Snodgress' group look lost against Keppel's press, but the
usual hard-working Nitros were outworked in just about every
category.
Keppel outrebounded Glendale, 31-19, and had 12 steals to the Nitros' five.
"They beat us badly before, and they did it again tonight,"
Snodgress said.
"We've faced a lot of teams recently that have pressed us, and
we've done a good job responding to it, but [Keppel] just left us
dead in the water tonight.
"I don't know how to explain it other than we were really, really
bad."
