San Marino Falls to Arroyo, Continues to Come Up Short

If basketball was only about tenacious defense, the San Marino boys hoops team would have more than one victory this season.

But the Titans continue to have trouble scoring and it cost them again on Tuesday night in a 50-43 loss to Arroyo in a nonleague game at San Marino.

"You have a pretty good chance at winning at this level if you hold a team to only 50 points, we just have to score 51 somehow," San Marino coach Mihail Papadopulos said.

The loss was San Marino's fifth in a row and dropped the Titans to 1-7.

"We're disappointed, but I don't think we're discouraged," said Papadopulos, who is in his first season at San Marino. "We know we're approaching it the right way. We're not a big squad, but we can still play bigger and have to do the things that good under-sized teams do. We have to make free throws, take care of the basketball and cherish every possession that we have."

San Marino got another solid performance from Luke Benuska, who scored 14 points to lead his team.

"He was a lot more aggressive today than he was in our last couple of games," Papadopulos said. "He really helped us a lot, but it's just not enough."

Benuska, the team's tallest player at 6-foot-2, was the only Titan to score in double figures. In fact, Jordan Dang, who didn't start, was the next highest with nine points.

"We have to start hitting our shots," Benuska said. "We sometimes settle for shots that we shouldn't be taking. We have to improve our shot selection and learn to finish."

San Marino trailed by eight at halftime and fell behind by 13 at the outset of the third quarter. The Titans rallied back and were down only 36-30 with 6:36 left in the fourth.

Dang drilled a 3-pointer and fed Benuska with a nice inside pass that Benuska turned into a layup to bring them back.

Dang played well off the bench and gave his team a spark in the fourth quarter.

"He's aggressive and gives a scoring option, and he's got some quickness to get around," Papadopulos said.

But Arroyo used an 8-2 run to jump the lead back up to 12 with less than five minutes to play and it was too much for San Marino to overcome.

The Knights (5-5) were led by Mark Roche with 16 points and Primitivo Gomez with 13.

"We're playing some good teams that are going to help us prepare for Rio Hondo League play," Benuska said. "We know what we have to do get us ready."

The Titans still have three nonleague games scheduled and a visit to the San Gabriel Tournament before league play starts Jan. 7 against South Pasadena. They don't play again until Dec. 20 when they take on Rosemead (1-5) at 1:30 p.m. at home.

"I have an incredible faith that we are going to get there," Papadopulos said. "It's a process of learning how to win games that these guys are going through.

Benuska agrees.

"We believe in ourselves," he said "We don't know why we're not there yet, but we're hungry and believe it's going to happen."