Not much goes right for Glendale in tourney loss

NEWHALL — From the start of its game Thursday evening, Glendale High’s boys’ basketball team was plagued by three problems: Stopping Palmdale’s Justin Haynes, losing the rebounding battle and getting its shots to fall.

Late in the first quarter, the Nitros began to equalize Haynes.

In the second half, they began to rebound better, with their defense, in turn, holding the Falcons in check.

But Glendale could never find its shooting touch and, in the end, that was the biggest factor in the Nitros’ 60-44 loss in the second round of the Hart Holiday Classic at Hart High.

“We’re not gonna beat anybody if we can’t put the ball in the hole,” said Glendale Coach Steve Snodgress, whose team will now play at 5 p.m. today in a consolation game of the tournament against a to-be-determined opponent.

The Nitros made just two field goals in the first quarter, falling behind, 17-7. The quarter ended with five straight Palmdale points and the second quarter began with six straight Palmdale points. The run was all part of a dismal Glendale stretch.

“We changed up the defense a little bit, it bought us some time,” Snodgress said. “But unfortunately, you need a lot of time to catch up when you start two for 22 [shooting].”

The hole got deepest at 31-8 in the second quarter, before Derenik Kaloosi hit a three-pointer with 2:26 left in the half. It ended an 11:27 drought without a field goal for Glendale.

Kaloosi, who had 12 points and seven rebounds, had hit the Nitros’ previous shot from the field, another three-pointer that gave his team its first and only lead of the game at 6-4 with 5:53 left to play in the opening stanza.

At that point, Haynes was terrorizing the Nitros, scoring his team’s first 12 points en route to a game-high 22.

After that, Glendale switched its defensive scheme and limited Haynes mightily, particularly behind the defensive play of Mikayel Badalyan.

Still, the rebounding problem hassled the Nitros and bolstered the Falcons (5-4).

For the game, the Falcons outrebounded the Nitros, 44-27. In the third quarter, Glendale started to show its grit on the boards, losing the battle, 10-9.

“We were outsized, but we played a lot better in the second half,” Snodgress said.

During the third quarter, Glendale held Palmdale to only seven points, but scored only six itself, going three for six from the free-throw line in addition to a Greg Gasparian three-pointer.

The Nitros never did find a shooting rhythm. They finished the game a miserable 14 of 65 (22%) shooting.

“At some point, the guys need to find their confidence,” said Snodgress, who got 13 points and six rebounds from David Mansuryan. “We went from abysmal to horrible, and I guess that’s better than abysmal.”