REDLANDS — Caio DaSilva has had more than his share of breaks in the past 10 months. Unfortunately, the breaks were on his left and right ankles.
DaSilva, a 6-foot-4 senior from Redlands East Valley, saw the fruits of his hard work in rehabilitation pay off in Wednesday night’s 72-61 victory over Beaumont.
While there are plenty of Citrus Belt League games remaining to be played, REV coach Mike Aranda and Beaumont coach Jon Florence agreed that the matchup was more important than a typical CBL contest.
“Beaumont beat us twice last year and won the league,” Aranda said. “We finished second. We talked about it in the lead-up to this game. We might have been a bit jittery at the start.”
Beaumont (14-6, 2-1 in league) jumped to a quick start, taking a 10-2 lead in the first three minutes. The Cougars led the entire first half, but REV’s Jeremiah Ivens hit a 3-pointer with 1:27 remaining in the second quarter and DaSilva set up Dariel Bahamontes for a short shot 39 seconds later to cut the halftime deficit to one point.
Aranda didn’t make any change of schemes or defenses during halftime.
“The guys just played hard, and our defensive effort turned into energy on offense,” Aranda said. “We started playing with confidence and shot the ball better.”
DaSiva led all scorers with 20 points and made four 3-pointers. Ivens added 19 points, while Darrell Green (11 points) and Demaj Moore (10 points) also reached double figures for the Wildcats (12-7, 3-0).
DaSilva moved well during the game and didn’t really show any effects of his injury history. He missed a good part of his junior season when he fractured his left ankle in December 2022. His medical chart got even longer in 2023, when he broke his right ankle in July.
“In the second half, we played hard and were flying around,” DaSilva said. “My family, my teammates, and assistant coach Austin McCullom encouraged me to stick with it. My teammates have faith in me.”
Florence said his team didn’t play in harmony. With four minutes remaining in the game, he told them, “You aren’t boxing out.” It was those sort of mistakes which frustrated the Beaumont mentor.
“We didn’t really play super hard,” Florence said. “We got away with that with teams which weren’t as good. It was a very big game because it can set the tone for the rest of the season.”
Josiah Morgan paced Beaumont with 16 points, while Vince Capuras and Payton Joseph added 14 and 12 points, respectively, for the Cougars.
George Alfano www.sbsun.com High School Sports,Sports,High School All Sports,High School Basketball
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2024-01-11 07:06:14 , San Bernardino Sun