A nightmare first half did not deter the San Marcos High boys’ basketball team.
The Royals clawed back from a 22–11 halftime deficit and pulled out a 47–46 overtime victory over visiting Oak Park in their season opener on Tuesday night at the Thunderhut.
“We played extremely hard, and that’s why we even had a chance to win. We didn’t do much else well,” said San Marcos coach Matt Jordan. “We had some bad turnovers, and we obviously didn’t shoot the ball well.”
Back-to-back three-pointers by Artin Lajevardi midway through the first quarter gave Oak Park an 8–3 lead. However, the Royals cut into the deficit to 10–8 with a three-pointer by Sergio Landeros with under a minute remaining in the first quarter.
The visiting Eagles opened the second quarter with a driving layup by Jonathan Plax to go ahead 12–8.
Lincoln Gengo knocked down a three-pointer to cut the San Marcos deficit to 12–11 at the 5:50 mark of the second quarter, but those were the only points the Royals would score in the period, as Oak Park closed the half on a 10–0 run.
“I want to give Oak Park credit. I thought they were really well coached,” Jordan said. “Koji is an incredible player, obviously, and they were doing a really good job of sending two bodies to him. I think we still got a lot of open looks from three-point range, and they weren’t going down.”
The Royals’ senior captains, Koji Hefner and Brody Green—both of whom have proven to be prolific scorers during their time at San Marcos—were scoreless at halftime, an extraordinary anomaly.
The tide turned almost immediately for San Marcos in the second half, as Hefner drained a three-pointer for his first points of the game at the 6:52 mark of the third quarter, cutting the Royals’ deficit to 22–14.
San Marcos outscored Oak Park 18–10 in the third quarter, and a driving layup by Green with just under one minute remaining in the period cut the deficit to 32–29.
The fourth quarter went back and forth, and San Marcos took its first lead since the opening minutes, 38–37, on a driving layup by Aidan Conlan with 4:02 remaining in regulation.
However, the Eagles jumped back in front on a basket inside by Beau Prophete with 2:35 left in the fourth. A steal and transition layup by Green swung the lead back to San Marcos, 40–39, at the 1:50 mark.
After both teams came up empty on their next few possessions, Oak Park’s Jaxon Freid was fouled on a three-pointer with 3.1 seconds remaining. He converted 1 of 3 free throws to tie the score at 40, and the Royals’ ensuing desperation heave missed wide.
In overtime, Conlan took over for San Marcos with a three-pointer that gave his team a 45–43 lead, followed by a reverse layup that put the Royals ahead 47–46 with 1:38 remaining.
The San Marcos defense stood tall down the stretch to preserve the lead.
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