By Rick Assad
Burroughs High’s Owen Everhart was the game’s leading scorer with 16 points, but his team lost to visiting El Camino Real on Monday night in a nonleague boys’ basketball game.
The final score was 67-33, but the Bears outscored the Royals 19-16 in the second half.
Everhart, a sophomore shooting guard, tallied points in three of the four quarters and had 11 points across the last sixteen minutes.
“Too many turnovers and not being able to make shots was our problem,” Burroughs first-year coach Darryl Carter said. “We played hard at the end but fell too far behind to make it a game.”
Still, Carter feels there will be brighter days ahead for this team, but it’s going to take time.
“We are extremely young so there’s going to be a lot of growing pains,” he explained.
The Bears struggled from the field on the evening making 12 of 40 attempts for 30 percent and nailed five of 22 for 22.7 percent in the first half.
Burroughs improved in the second half, making seven of 18 for 38.8 percent.
Junior guard Evan Baker finished with seven points for the Bears (4-7), who trailed 23-7 after the initial period as El Camino Real senior guard Shawn Tunson scored seven of his team-best 12 points.
Longtime Burroughs assistant coach Scott Koulouvaris is likewise optimistic.
“Although we got beat by a lot, we played better in the second half. It took us too long to start playing better,” he noted. “Our lack of varsity experience showed in the first half. But we are learning and growing in the right direction.”
Junior forward Lucas Le also chimed in with seven points for El Camino Real, which shot 35.7 percent on 20 of 56 overall, in the first frame and finished with 10 points.
The Royals (5-7) stretched their advantage to 41-14 at the intermission as three players tallied four points in the second quarter including junior forward Michael Khorramian (10 points).
Khorramian’s basket with fifty seconds left in the second quarter gave the Royals a 39-12 cushion.
Junior guard Jaydin Jackson (eight points) also scored four points in the second period including a hoop with 3:28 left for a 31-11 lead.
Charles Eleri, a junior guard for the Royals, added 11 points and accounted for seven points in the opening half.
El Camino Real connected on 11 of 25 for 44 percent from the field in the second half.
Everhart dropped six points in the third quarter as the Bears drew within 57-26 heading to the fourth period and his basket with 4:56 left cut the lead to 47-18.
Everhart continued to put the ball into the hoop as he scored five points in the fourth quarter.
Other Burroughs players who scored were junior Elliot Lawrence, who tallied four points, junior Teagan Bradford and junior Ethan Cooper with two points each and junior Nico Meza and junior Kane Le-Cabio added one point each.
The Royals sank five three-pointers in the game and Tunson nailed two of them while the Bears, who were outrebounded 33-27, failed to make a trey.
