Vista falls to Rio Americano in CVC opener, 79-51

Every varsity boys' basketball game in the Capital Valley Conference will be tough for Vista del Lago. The Eagles entered Friday's first conference game at home against Rio Americano with a 5-10 record, while every other conference foe had records of 9-5 or better, including the Raiders. The Raiders are a good team and they showed it Friday night against the Eagles, as they won the game, 79-51. Vista played OK in the first quarter, mostly because they shot the ball well, as they trailed 20-16 after eight minutes. However, as the game went on, Vista didn't shoot the ball as well, while the Raiders continued to shoot it well. Rio Americano outscored the Eagles 23-9 in the second quarter to open up a 18-point lead at halftime. The Raiders then came out and scored the first nine points of the second half to extend its lead to 27 points and the game was over. The Eagles didn't play as poorly as the 28-point difference showed, but the Raiders are a very good team. "Let's say there are 30 things you need to do right every possession," Vista coach Josh Gould explained. "There were possessions where we did 28 or 29 of those things right and a team like Rio is going to make you pay for not doing those one or two things. You have five guys rotating well and they're talking, but if we have our hands 14 inches lower on a close out than we should and they'll make you pay. Chris (Jones) does a good job and they have a lot of athletes. "We could have done a lot better job of trying to stop the bleeding early instead of trying to trade buckets with them." One thing that hurt the Eagles was poor passing, which led to lots of turnovers and easy buckets at the other end. "Our theme of the week is effort, attention to detail and focus and that wasn't really showcased tonight for more than a half or a quarter and a half," Gould said. Matthew Howe led the Eagles with 19 points, including 15 coming on three-pointers. Max Prouhet finished with 11 points, while Max Higgins finished with seven. Vista will try to pick up its first league win on Tuesday at Christian Brothers.