OAKLAND, Calif. The Head-Royce boys junior varsity basketball team forced 26 turnovers and never trailed Friday, Nov. 28, beating McClymonds JV 68-42 at home. The Jayhawks improved to 3-1. Head-Royce had 18 steals and turned McClymonds' mistakes into 18 points.
Head-Royce scored first, when Kian Patel converted a turnover into a basket on a feed from Owen Sunwoo. Makaio Popp added a second-chance basket and a free throw for a 5-0 lead. McClymonds answered with its first basket to make it 5-2. The Jayhawks then scored the next 15 points. Sunwoo hit a second-chance 3-pointer, and John Wheeler scored eight points in the run: a 3-pointer, a layup off a turnover and a second-chance 3-pointer. Clayton Sonne's basket closed the run and made it 20-2.
McClymonds cut into the lead. After Tucker Peay's basket off a turnover made it 26-11, the visitors scored six straight points to pull within 26-17. They were still within 28-19 when Head-Royce went on a 7-0 run. LoRyan Boyette-Tindall scored a basket and made two free throws, Sunwoo added a basket and Popp made a free throw for a 35-19 lead.
McClymonds got within 10 points twice, at 43-33 and 45-35. Boyette-Tindall ended both threats. With the score 45-35, he scored seven straight points: a basket off a turnover, a 3-pointer set up by Sanjay Ernst and another basket off a turnover, which made it 52-35. From the time Head-Royce led 28-19 until that basket, Boyette-Tindall scored 16 of the Jayhawks' 24 points. Adagio Williams added a second-chance 3-pointer to make it 59-40. After McClymonds scored its last basket, Head-Royce closed with seven straight points from Ernst, Williams and Popp. Popp's second-chance 3-pointer, assisted by Patel, set the final margin at 26, Head-Royce's largest lead of the game.
Boyette-Tindall led all Head-Royce scorers with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting, along with seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. Wheeler, a starter, scored 11 points, made 3 of 5 3-point attempts and had seven steals. Peay added eight points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and a blocked shot off the bench. Patel had six points, seven rebounds and four assists, and Ernst scored six points and blocked two shots.
The Jayhawks shot 38.4 percent from the field (28 of 73), close to McClymonds' 39.1 percent (18 of 46). Head-Royce took 27 more shots, and turnovers and rebounding explain why. The Jayhawks had 13 turnovers to McClymonds' 26 and outrebounded the visitors 42-32. That included a 20-9 edge on the offensive glass, which produced 18 second-chance points to McClymonds' four. Head-Royce had 19 assists to McClymonds' six, and its bench outscored McClymonds' bench 34-0. McClymonds made 2 of 14 free throws.
Head-Royce (3-1) hosts Antioch JV on Saturday, Dec. 13.