Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun
Coronado basketball players, from left, Michael Louder, Austin Nelson and Adam Schmitt.
Friday, Jan. 7, 2011 | 10:14 p.m.
Prep Sports Now
Back from break, basketball resumes
Las Vegas Sun sports reporters Case Keefer and Ray Brewer dive back into the high school basketball scene and tell you who to look out for in the second half of the season. Brewer is convinced he can already tell who will play in the state championship in both the boys and girls.
Related coverage
The Coronado High basketball team put this game away in the first quarter.
The Cougars opened their Friday game against host Foothill on a 15-0 run and never looked back in a crucial 58-37 Southeast Division victory.
“Our goal was to come out hard,” Coronado coach Jeff Kaufman said. “We did not want them to get into any kind of rhythm and have a player to feed off of. And that’s what we did.”
The Cougars fast start was the result of the strong play of senior forwards Jared Culbert and Adam Schmitt and junior center Michael Louder.
Culbert scored six points, Schmitt scored five, and Louder contributed with four to give Coronado a 15-0 lead less than four minutes into the game.
Culbert led all scorers with a game-high 16 points, Schmitt finished with 13 points, including 11 in the first half, and Louder pitched in with nine.
“(Culbert) is a very good basketball player,” Kaufman said. “When you see this kid play in the rec, he is unbelievable. We had to hone him in this year and he’s been unbelievable for us.”
Foothill rallied with an 11-2 scoring run in the second quarter to pull within eight points, 26-18, but that was as close as the Falcons would get.
Culbert scored six points in the third quarter as the Cougars outscored the Falcons 15-12 to take a 45-32 lead into the final period. The Cougars extended their lead to 20 points at 56-36 on a Kyle Johnson layup late in the fourth quarter.
Coronado improved to 11-3 on the year with its only losses coming to Valley and twice to Sierra Vista.
“Every win is big. You always want to win,” Kaufman said. “I respect Foothill a lot. Our record here is 1-9 and since I’ve been here. This is my fifth year and we have never won here. It’s big because we are undefeated in conference.”
The loss dropped Foothill’s record to 11-6 on the season. It was only the second loss for Foothill to a team from the state of Nevada as four of its losses have come to teams from outside the state.
Join the Discussion:
Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.
Full comments policy