Hot shooting Silverado cruises past Shadow Ridge

By Jesse Granger

Friday, Jan. 15, 2016 | 10 p.m.

Friday night at Silverado High School, Skyhawks guard Tyric Johnson nearly beat Shadow Ridge all by himself.

Through three quarters, the senior had 25 points — only one less than the 26 Shadow Ridge had scored as a team.

Johnson opened up the game by hitting four of his first five shots, all from three-point range. He continued his scorching night from the floor before sitting out most of the fourth quarter during the Skyhawks 67-48 blowout of the Mustangs.

“I can always shoot like that,” Johnson said. “If my teammates trust me to shoot the ball I’m going to shoot it, and most of the time it’s going to go in.”

Johnson fired up shots from nearly everywhere in the gym, hitting two threes from well beyond the arc, but his coaches never blinked an eye.

“He works really hard at it,” Silverado coach Shelby Jones said. “He has put the time in for us as coaches to allow him to do that a little bit. Especially when he gets on a roll we try to get him the ball and get out of the way and let him go to work.”

Both teams entered this game with extra motivation, as it served as a rubber match after the teams split the first two this season.

“We held a grudge and this was probably the most important nonleague game this year,” Johnson said. “We definitely needed to win this game.”

After squeaking out a 73-69 win in the first matchup, the Skyhawks were handled by Shadow Ridge 76-65 in the Tri-State Holiday Invitational tournament.

“They blitzed us the last time we played them and really put it on us,” Jones said. “It was a motivational thing for us, and even more than that just playing well going into league play was really important.”

Silverado will now finish up the season with six of their final seven games against Northeast League opponents. The Skyhawks have, by far, the best overall record in the division and have a great chance to win the league.

That is largely due to their suffocating 3-2 zone defense that has left most opponents searching for answers.

“Because we are so long it’s hard for teams to get the ball into the middle where they really want it,” Johnson said. “(Shadow Ridge) doesn’t really have a lot of shooters besides (Anthony Jaramillo), so it was hard for them to get the ball into the bucket.”

The Mustangs struggled mightily against the Skyhawks' stout defense, scoring only 13 points in the first half.

“We shut the penetration off,” Jones said. “We couldn’t allow dives to the basket and for them to get to the hoop. They shot 43 free throws in the last game, so it was an emphasis to not put them on the line and make them earn what they get.”

Shadow Ridge went 11-of-24 from the charity stripe, while Silverado made 20-of-30.

Matthew Arnold had an all-around good game for the Skyhawks, scoring 14 points while grabbing 12 rebounds and picking up three blocks.

“He’s our glue guy,” Johnson said. “He does a little bit of everything. He’s a rim protector and that’s huge for us. You watch him play and nothing jumps out, but you look at the stat sheet and he stuffs every category.”

Point guard Kris Coe pitched in 10 points for Silverado, and Jerell Springer led Shadow Ridge with 15 points.

More than anything the blowout win shows Silverado's improvement — just in time for the most important part of the season.

“We still have a long ways to go, but we are getting tougher physically and we are rebounding the ball a lot better,” Johnson said. “We are doing all of the little things better and that will be key going forward.”