The Cesar Chavez boys’ basketball team ended their regular season with a perfect conference record of 10-0 when they defeated the Alhambra Lions 88-55 on Tuesday night.

 

With a couple minutes left in the first half, Cesar Chavez captain Isaac Williams had a dunk to get the crowd fired up and put the Champions up 40-17.

 

Williams scored 15 of his 24 points in the first half.

 

“Isaac has had some good moments on both sides of the ball and today he played a good all-around game,” said Cesar Chavez head coach Gary Lee. “What we’re hoping for is that he is really trying to show up his senior year and represent for us.”

 

Cesar Chavez started off the game down 2-0 but went on a 12-0 run giving the Champions momentum that lasted throughout the game.

 

The run was stopped by junior guard Brian Gaxiola when he hit a 3-point shot. Gaxiola had 11 points for the game.

 

“Brian started off real slow with his ball handling but he really picked it up with shooting,” said Alhambra’s head coach Ernie Cobb. “He had a really good game tonight and he’s improving all the time.”

 

The first half ended 45-19 with Cesar Chavez in the lead.

 

In the third quarter, the Lions outscored the Cesar Chavez Champions 29-23. There were seven 3-point shots in the third quarter with three 3-pointers scored by senior shooting guard Darrel Burton and three more scored by junior shooting guard Matt Saenz.

 

“During that stretch, they got extremely hot with the three and it was from deep, and I think a couple of our guys started to get lazy,” Lee said. “Their kids did a good job and then our kids finally started focusing in and tried to take that away, which helped.”

 

The Champions solidified their win when they outscored the Lions 17-6 in the fourth quarter.

 

“Winning is a good feeling, and we were just out there having fun since it was our last regular season game,” said Williams.

 

The Lions finished their season with an overall record of 5-16 and a conference record of 1-9.

 

“We’re building right now, we got a young team, but we’re fighters and I’m really proud of them,” Cobb said. “Next year, you can expect a pretty good team, we’re maturing now, we have some people coming back and you can always expect them to fight and leave their hearts on the floor.”

 

Cesar Chavez will not know who they will be playing in the first round of playoffs until tomorrow morning. That game will be played on Friday night.

 

Williams said that the team is ready for playoffs and they are working on staying focused on defense. The mindset of the game is to focus and play as if it is their last game of the season.

 

“As a young team, we had some ups and downs during the season,” Lee said. “But as they have focused in and learned, it seems like we’re starting to understand the big picture, which is going to allow us success.”