Thunder remains unbeaten with win over Twelve Bridges

Rocklin High School boys basketball remained unbeaten on the season with Thursday night's win over Twelve Bridges in Lincoln, pulling away in the fourth quarter for an 86-57 victory. The Raging Rhinos hung around for three quarters, but Rocklin's defense and depth paid off down the stretch, as the Thunder outscored Twelve Bridges 26-6 in the fourth. "One of the reasons we won tonight's game is we like to play fast and put a lot of pressure that wears the other team down, and I think we saw that in the fourth quarter," Rocklin coach Steve Taylor said. "We were the fresher team. We started making shots. They were tired, and understandably so." Taylor said Rocklin didn't play like itself in the first half, with several key players getting into foul trouble and playing limited minutes. Taylor was forced to play a smaller lineup than he wanted to but felt Rocklin adjusted well and slowed a high-powered Twelve Bridges team. "This game didn't go like we wanted it to from a foul situation but our guys adapted really well," Taylor said. "We had to play smaller but the strength of our team has been the ability to play fast. And that was our goal coming in. Our kids defended much bigger players really well and they showed toughness tonight." One of the biggest defensive playmakers in the second half was sophomore guard Josiah Andrews, who stands an unassuming 6 feet tall. Andrews was tasked with guarding Twelve Bridges' UC Davis-bound senior Jacob Gilchrist in the second half and held him to six points. Andrews led the Thunder with 20 points and seven steals. "As a basketball player, Josiah's an old soul. He is one of the smartest players I've ever coached and he's only a sophomore," Taylor said. "He asked to guard 34 in the second half. For a smaller player who's a younger player to say I want to take their best player, that shows his confidence and his maturity as a player. He wants to be in that moment, whether it be on offense or defense, and he made it really difficult for their best player and he got very frustrated and ended up fouling out of the game." Gilchrist still managed 12 points. James Sweet led the Raging Rhinos (9-4) with 16 points. Taylor credited Rocklin's 15-0 record to the team's chemistry, saying this could be one of the tightest-knit groups he has coached. "This is an unusually close group, on and off the court, and I think that special teams have that aspect to them," Taylor said. "They enjoy just being around each other and when you have a group that's close, there's no one really playing selfish and they just play as a unit. I think it makes us hard to guard." Rocklin will be back in action Wednesday night against Oakmont at 5 p.m. at the Coach Corn Classic at Yuba College. Twelve Bridges takes on Mira Loma on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Lincoln.