Carson Stewart led Laguna Blanca with 23 points and 15 rebounds in a 60-44 home win over San Luis Obispo Classical Thursday.
“I’m glad he’s on our team!” Owls coach Phil Sherman said.
Laguna Blanca was without two injured players, John Mayfield and Spencer Hlavaty, and then Eka Nayak received his fourth foul early in the third quarter.
That left Laguna Blanca with only five players for the second half — and yet the Owls managed to swell a 32-23 halftime lead to a lead of 20 points in the third quarter, behind the play of Stewart and senior point guard Michael Wang.
The Grizzlies managed to close the gap to 10 points, at 43-33, in the fourth. Stewart scored eight of his points in that frame to keep SLO Classical at bay.
Sherman credited Ganden Walker for “a good job of hounding” the Grizzlies’ Haaken Theule, who came in with a 24 points per game average.
“Kent Dunn and Ganden Walker played especially well,” Sherman said. “Kent was forced to defend a much bigger player and held his own.”