Ahmad Jacquet was in the zone in the first quarter of Lathrop’s Western Athletic Conference opener Wednesday against visiting Ceres.
In the second quarter, he was in the locker room with a wad of tissues pressed up against his mouth.
The Spartans had to make do without one of their primary ball handlers for a stretch, and in the end they broke it open by scoring the final 15 points of what turned out to be a 60-33 rout.
The sharpshooting senior hit three 3s in the first 5 minutes of the game and had 11 points, as Lathrop (7-7) rolled to a 19-10 lead. The Spartans struggled with turnovers for much of the half, however, allowing Ceres (5-9) to stay in the game because of some sloppy play.
“I dove for a loose ball on a hustle play,” Jacquet said after the game while pointing to a puffy area in his upper lip. As it continued to bleed, he could only watch from the hallway leading to the locker rooms, as his team finished out the rest of the half.
Lathrop was ahead 29-20 at halftime, but at one point it was 21-18 after the Bulldogs went on an 8-0 run.
“It was really tough,” Jacquet said. “I knew my teammates needed me out there to help execute and make plays. I made sure when I got back out there to help turn it around for the team.”
He finished with a game-high 18 points while keying the defense with four steals. Xzayvier Martinez registered 10 points, 10 rebounds and three steals for Ceres.
Coach Robin Hong, who is in his first year with the Spartans, was not entirely pleased with the effort despite the lopsided result.
“It was disappointing for us, because we felt like we did not execute to the level that we expected,” he said, adding that the team was lackadaisical and was slow to rotate defensively.
“We told them at halftime that was unacceptable. Third quarter honestly was not much better, but I think once we started to have a shorter leash with our primary players and giving our rotational players more minutes because they deserve it, that kind of woke everybody up. We needed that jolt off the bench.
“That fourth quarter was big for us, and we made a statement win ultimately. But there’s a lot to take from this and to learn from. There are still some things to work on despite the big win.”
Although Ceres struggled with Lathrop’s defensive pressure, at times, the Spartans had their own issues with unforced miscues. The home squad had 15 turnovers in the first half and 24 in all, compared to 23 for the Bulldogs.
Lathrop made up for it in other areas. In the fourth quarter, the Spartans had a 10-3 edge in rebounds and 38-30 overall. Centers Raymond Carson (nine points, 10 rebounds, four steals, two blocks) and Christian Buerster (six points, eight rebounds) bothered Ceres with their length and activity.
Napolean Reeves contributed eight points, and Kameron Jones had seven points, six rebounds and six assists.
The Spartans put it away with a late rally, outscoring the visitors 19-5 in the final period. Adrian Ontiveros buried a 3-pointer from the wing with 5:12 to go, and that was it for Ceres the rest of the night.
“We just want to execute to our abilities as a team,” Jacquet said. “I feel like we played a good game, but we could have executed more offense and made a little more hustle plays on defense. In the fourth quarter, we started swinging the ball around and ran our offense thoroughly. We were hitting our second, third and fourth options through our offense and got some open looks.”
