Wildcats have wild time

Spencer Patterson

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2002 | 10:13 a.m.

If Las Vegas High coach Bob Beskow had any concerns his Wildcats might look past Rancho to Friday's matchup with first-place Desert Pines, those fears were put to rest long before he could break a sweat Wednesday night.

Beskow's squad came out sizzling and never let the visiting Rams into the game, building an astonishing 50-point halftime lead en route to a thoroughly lopsided 91-32 win.

Now, the No. 3 Wildcats can turn their full attention to Friday's main event -- a home game against the No. 5 Jaguars, with the Northeast Division title and the accompanying No. 1 playoff seed hanging in the balance.

"We've kept them from looking ahead, and now we've put ourselves in a pretty good position," Beskow said. "I told them, 'You lose this game tonight, and Friday's game is useless,' and I think they took that to heart."

Las Vegas (24-3, 8-1 Northeast) buried Rancho (9-12, 3-6) with the deadly combination of stifling defense and red-hot shooting, turning the contest into a laugher by the second quarter.

Leading 10-4, the Wildcats reeled off 17 straight points to close the first quarter, then another 11 in a row to open the second to make the score 38-6.

The Rams finally got on the board again on DeAndre Williams' 3-pointer with five minutes left in the half, ending a scoreless stretch of more than seven minutes.

But Las Vegas answered back with their most impressive run yet, this time 21-0 to close the half, bringing the score to 59-9 at the break. The Wildcats scored on 12 consecutive possessions, a string broken only when Robert Berkey's halfcourt heave glanced off the rim as the buzzer sounded.

The hosts shot .743 from the floor in the first half, converting 26-of-35 shots, including six from 3-point range. That was more than enough to keep them comfortably ahead down the stretch, with the lead ballooning as big as 61 points once in the fourth quarter.

Guard Glenn Thomas led the assault with 19 points, connecting on 8-of-12 shots from the field. Thomas, Zach Queen (14 points) and Justin Daw (13) each knocked down three 3-point shots.

"Last game, me and Zach were 3-of-21 so we had to shoot better," Thomas said. "We worked on our shooting all week in practice, and we came out on fire tonight."

Jeremy Atwater contributed 14 points, six rebounds and the defensive play of the game, diving headfirst twice in succession to save a ball from going out of bounds, the second time tapping it to teammate Stanley Copeland under the basket for a layup.

"That was the play of the year," Beskow said. "He made the steal and dove out of bounds to save it, then got up, chased it down and dove again for the assist. That shows what type of player (Atwater) is. He'll do anything to win."

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