Under triple coverage, Warrior senior Chad Farewell goes up for a shot in the waning seconds of last week's CIF basketball playoff game in Hanford. Hanford, seeded first in the playoff tournament, defeated the Warriors, 73-42. Photo by Michael Duffy, The Tehachapi News.
Posted by thswarriors.com on February 21, 2008 WARRIOR MEN CAGERS
CLOSE OUT SEASON IN HANFORD
Finish With 15-12 Season Record
The 2007-08 Warrior basketball season came to an end in Hanford Thursday evening, as the #1 seed Hanford Bullpups defeated #9 seed Tehachapi, 73-42. The Warriors end the season with an overall record of 15-12.
Hanford, now 28-3 for the season, advances in the Division III playoffs and will meet Redwood-Visalia next week. Hanford won the West Yosemite League championship with a perfect 12-0 record, with two of those league wins coming against Redwood.
Hanford used a full court man-to-man press and a physical inside game to overpower the Warriors. Hanford jumped out to a quick 11-0 lead to start the game, and led 21-8 after the first quarter.
Hanford increased their lead to 35-19 at halftime; 54-30 at the half; and won going away outscoring Tehachapi 19-12 in the final canto. Flashy junior guard "Cougar" Williams led the Bullpups with 14 points, and bulky 6' 5" center Barrett Felder added 12 points.
Tehachapi, the defending Division III champions, were led by JJ Balker with 9 points, and senior guard Josh Schulgen added 8 points.
Two nights earlier, on February 19, the Warriors earned the right to meet Hanford by knocking off the #8 seed Yosemite, 62-49, in Oakhurst. The Warriors were paced by JJ Balkar with 18 points, and Kurtis Knudsen and Justin Hansen chipped in with 11 points apiece.
Tehachapi finished the season with a 6-4 record in league play, good enough for a second place finish behind South Sequoia League champion Bakersfield Christian.
Posted by Tom Shea, The Tehachapi News on February 25, 2008 MOUNTAIN BASKETBALL SEASON
ENDS IN HANFORDThe No. 9 seed Warriors reached the section quarterfinals after an impressive 62-49 upset win over No. 8 seed Yosemite, but the playoff run ended against Division III top seed Hanford in a 72-43 loss on the road.
Tehachapi (15-12) was faced with having to endure two long road trips in one week, spanning a total one-way travel time of nearly eight hours to both Oakhurst and Hanford on school nights.
Despite the challenge, the Warriors met both hurdles with their best effort.
“The game against Yosemite was probably our best game of basketball all season long,” said head coach Chris Olofson. “I was proud of our guys, they played hard and had good focus.”
JJ Balkar provided the hot hand for the Warriors against Yosemite (14-12), knocking down three treys and finishing with 18 points. Justin Hansen also had a big second quarter for Tehachapi, scoring 10 points in the stanza and 13 points overall in the game. Tehachapi out-shot the Badgers 21-6 in the period, and went into halftime up 29-13.
“It’s tough taking a four-hour road trip like that and performing at the level we did,” added Olofson. “But they came in focused and got the job done.”
Other leading scorers included Kurtis Knudson with nine points, Bert Hall with six, Josh Schulgen and Shawn Pimentel with five each, Jeff Waldram with four, and Derek Lange with one point.
Two days later, Tehachapi traveled to Hanford to take on the No. 1 seeded Bullpups in what turned out to be the final game of the season.
Eight different Warriors scored in the game, with JJ Balkar leading the way with nine, Josh Schuglen with eight, Bert Hall with seven, Derek Lange with six, Shawn Pimentel and Justin Hansen with four, and Kurtis Knudson and Jeff Waldram with two apiece.
“We want to thank our seniors for a great effort this year,” added Olofson. “We also have a great future of guys returning, we’ll be back and we’re looking forward to making a run again next season.”
