LODI The Lodi High Basketball team certainly did not have any opening-game jitters Wednesday night when it forced four turnovers in the contest's first 90 seconds and started the game with visiting Sierra on an 11-0 run on the way to a 64-41 nonleague boys Basketball win at The Inferno.
"That is what we are going to do," Flames coach Dave Nutting said. "We are going to get after you and take the good open shot, and if it drops we get a good start and if it doesn't we will battle. "Our kids came out fired up and playing really hard. For the first game I was really pleased."
Lodi (1-0) used a ferocious press to gobble up 19 first-half turnovers, leading 16-2 after the first quarter and 27-16 at halftime.
"This was just a bad game overall," Timberwolves coach Scott Thomason said. "Nothing went right for us.
"It is kind of hard to play Basketball when you are timid and that is how we started the game. Their press bothered us and they were quick to the ball and much more aggressive then we were."
Sierra (0-1) started the second half much better than it did the first, using back-to-back baskets by Serge Veretennikov to come within 29-20 early in the third quarter and Veretennikov fought for two offensive rebounds at the end of the period to put back in a buzzer beater to close the Timberwolves back within 38-29. The Flames began the final quarter on a 10-4 spurt and coasted to the win.
"Coach Thomason does a great job with his team," Nutting said. "He made some adjustments and we didn't and he got them right back in the game at the start of the second half."
Chris Choate led Sierra with 11 points followed by Veretennikov with nine points and Tyler Willis (12 rebounds) with six points.
"In practice we play as hard as we can," Choate said. "But sometimes it just doesn't carry over."
Lodi's Steven Cockrum led all scorers with 17 points and teammate Ryan Gardner added 14. Cockrum nabbed five first-half steals and rounded out a double-double with 10 rebounds.
Eddie Andrade put up 20 points in a 38-26 sophomore loss for Sierra, and Kayson Matela scored eight points in a 52-27 loss for the freshman Timberwolves.
