It was all San Marcos on Friday at the Thunderhut, as guards Tony Njia and Isaiah Hicks led a relentless attack in an 85-40 boys basketball rout over a young Dos Pueblos team in a Channel League game.
Njia, a senior, scored 25 points and the junior Hicks had 14 points for the Royals, who improved to 6-1 in league and stayed in a first-place tie with Santa Barbara with two games remaining in the regular season.
“Isaiah’s like a brother to me,” said Njia of his backcourt mate. “We make sure everything is hard in practice so in the game we can just flow.”
The Royals’ flow was briefy interrupted in the second quarter when Ben Partee and DP’s Alex McCeney hit the ground hard while fighting for a rebound. Partee was down for about two minutes but was able to stand on his own, and gave the Royal faithful an enormous hop.
A three-sport athlete and a three-year starting quarterback, Partee announced this week he committed to continue his football career at Division II Gannon University in Pennsylvania.
“He’s a tough competitor,” said San Marcos basketball coach Jelani Hicks of Partee. “That’s part of the reason he’s on the team.”
San Marcos led by 25 points after the second and third quarters as its defense shut down the Chargers’ offense.
A bright spot from the Chargers came in the form of senior Baylor Huyck, who lead the Chargers by swooshing a trio of long-distance three-pointers and scoring 18 points.
“I was kinda shooting like that against Santa Barbara and then realized I could shoot from that far out,” said a modest Huyck.
Despite the lopsided score, fans from both schools kept the energy high throughout the game, rocking out to classic rock songs such as “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey and “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond.
“We’ve got a great student section,” said Hicks. “The fans are usually great, especially in the rivalry games like this.”
At halftime, a San Marcos flash mob broke out to the tune of “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas.
“It’s our last home game,” said Royals senior Jack Boyd. “We did it in 2012 and it got a couple thousand hits on YouTube, so we thought why not try it again.”
San Marcos will look to win its sixth in a row on Tuesday at Santa Ynez, while Dos Pueblos (3-5) will try to snap a two-game losing streak in Lompoc against the Braves.