OAKLAND, Calif. Piedmont JV scored 12 straight points to break open a close game, and the Head-Royce boys junior varsity team lost 51-41 at home Tuesday. The Jayhawks fell to 2-1 with their first loss of the 2025-26 season.
Head-Royce opened with a 7-0 run. Makaio Popp scored a second-chance basket, John Wheeler followed with a second-chance 3-pointer on a Popp assist, and Wheeler turned a Piedmont turnover into a basket. Popp later scored off another turnover, this time on a feed from Clayton Sonne, to make it 9-2. Piedmont kept coming. After a second-chance basket by LoRyan Boyette-Tindall made it 13-9, Piedmont hit consecutive 3-pointers for a 6-0 run and its first lead at 15-13.
The Jayhawks answered with a 7-0 run of their own. Kian Patel hit a 3-pointer on a Wheeler assist to put Head-Royce back in front, Adagio Williams scored on a pass from Boyette-Tindall, and Boyette-Tindall added a basket for a 20-15 lead. Piedmont tied the game at 20, then tied it again at 22 after a Wheeler basket, and went ahead for good at 24-22. Head-Royce pulled within two points three more times, the last on back-to-back baskets by Boyette-Tindall that cut the deficit to 32-30.
The Jayhawks got no closer. Piedmont scored the next 12 points, six of them at the free throw line, to build a 44-30 lead, its largest of the game. Owen Sunwoo and Sonne ended the drought with back-to-back baskets off turnovers, but Head-Royce got no closer than nine the rest of the way. Popp scored twice late, once on a Sonne assist and once on a Sunwoo assist, and Piedmont made three free throws in the closing stretch to finish it off.
Boyette-Tindall led Head-Royce with 13 points on 6-of-16 shooting. He also had four rebounds, all on the offensive glass, and three steals without a turnover. Wheeler added 9 points, a team-high five rebounds and three steals, also without a turnover. Popp scored 8 points on 4-of-9 shooting, and Sonne had team highs of two assists and two steals. Patel's 3-pointer accounted for all of the Jayhawks' bench scoring.
Both teams made 19 field goals, but Piedmont needed just 39 attempts (48.7 percent) while Head-Royce took 63 (30.2 percent). The free throw line made the biggest difference. Piedmont went 10-of-13 and Head-Royce went 1-of-7. The Jayhawks also made 2 of 21 3-point attempts, and Piedmont won the rebounding battle 39-25 and blocked five shots. The Head-Royce defense forced 21 turnovers, including 12 steals, and the Jayhawks outscored Piedmont 14-2 in points off turnovers. Head-Royce also pulled down 14 offensive rebounds, which led to 7 second-chance points.
Head-Royce (2-1) returns to action Saturday, Dec. 13, when it hosts Antioch JV.