Yuba City boys hoops edged by Inderkum in TCC opener

After what could be classified as an up-and-down nonleague slate, Yuba City High's boys basketball team entered its Tri-County Conference opener with a bull's-eye firmly placed on its back.

Winners of five consecutive TCC titles, the Honkers had dropped just one of their last 44 conference games dating back to the end of the 2007-08 season, and had a 12-game winning streak against Inderkum heading into Thursday night's showdown at Honker Gym.

But for the first time since February of 2007, the Tigers finally got the Honkers' number by ripping off a 9-0 run early in the fourth period and holding on for a 59-55 victory.

"Yuba City is a really good team. They're well-coached and if you don't play solid basketball, they'll beat you," Inderkum coach Rodney Haymer said. "We went on a run, and they went on a run. Fortunately, ours was bigger than theirs."

In fact, the entire game consisted of lengthy scoring runs by both teams.

Inderkum (11-7, 1-0) started things with an 11-0 spurt at the end of the first quarter to build a six-point cushion, only to see Yuba City (8-9, 0-1) break off an 11-0 run of its own run in the second to creep back into the game.

Two players led the charge for the Honkers during that stretch as freshman guard Kyle Turnquest scored three times on acrobatic layups, while senior center Aran Dhillon pulled down five rebounds and blocked a pair of shots in the paint.

The Tigers eventually built a 39-31 lead in the third, but once again the Honkers were able to rally back. Gurpreet Singh hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Taylor Elkins hit another trey on the next trip down the floor to give Yuba City a short-lived 40-39 lead.

However, it all went downhill for the Honkers in the fourth.

Trailing 48-47 heading into the final period, Yuba City hit just one of its first nine shots and the Tigers took advantage by scoring nine straight points to pull away for good.

"We beat ourselves tonight. We didn't run our offense and took too many forced shots to beat a good team," Honker coach Brian Davis said. "The effort is there, it's just that we've got to have a higher basketball IQ.

"We didn't do one thing we did at practice."

Turnquest led the way for Yuba City with 15 points and pulled down 11 rebounds as well. Singh finished with 13 points, Louis Mowers had eight and Elkins chipped in with seven.

Dhillon had a big night in the rebound department with a game-high 18 boards to go with six points.

Terrence White scored 15 of his game-high 17 points in the first half to lead the charge for the Tigers. Lennard Shell added 10 points and Sam Dhillon finished with nine.

"We figured out who their top players were and what they could do," Haymer said of the fourth period. "They just happened to miss their shots tonight."

But while the Honkers dropped their first league opener since their final year in Division-I (2005-06), Davis said the problems can be easily remedied.

"All we have to do is what's designed and we can fix this in one practice," he said. "That's the positive note, but this will sting the rest of the night."