MidValleySports.Com

By Tim Peterson

(Pasadena)- Maranatha fell behind 24-8 in the second quarter and couldn’t recover in a 62-48 loss to Heritage Christian Friday night in Olympic League action at Maranatha High.

The Minutemen fell behind 10-2 right out of the gate and still trailed 18-8 at the end of the first quarter. The Warriors then scored the first six points of the second quarter and just like that Maranatha was down by 16. The Minutemen were still down by 14, 29-15 at the half.

Tae Simmons led Heritage with 11 points in the first half and the Warriors also knocked down four threes in the first half to help build the 14-point advantage.

Maranatha tried to get back in it in the third quarter. They scored the first five points of the third to get within nine. Zain Mahmood went to work down in the paint for the Minutemen and had six points in the quarter and Daniel Nwabudike threw down a jam as they tried to make a push.

But Dillan Shaw had an answer for Maranatha’s run. He knocked down a pair of threes and had a huge third quarter to keep the Minutemen at bay. He scored 14 points in the quarter as he went five of six from the field and also hit a couple of free throws. Despite Maranatha’s rally early in the quarter Shaw and the Warriors were up 46-32 at the end of three.

Heritage Christian maintained the lead in the fourth quarter as Simmons kept up his hot shooting and Shaw hit a couple more buckets to close it out.

Shaw led the Warriors with 22 points and Simmons finished with 21 as the two combined for 43 of the 62 points. No other Heritage Christian player was in double figures.

“They’re a seasoned team over there. They have two D1 players and that makes them tough to beat,” said Maranatha coach Tim Tucker. “We had a tough shooting night and when you have a tough night against them it’s hard to win.”

For Maranatha Mahmood led the way with 15 points. Trevor Cohen had eight including a big slam dunk and Nicholas Khatchkian had seven while Nwabudike scored six.

“I thought Zain (Mahmood) did a good job against their big men,” Tucker said.

Maranatha fell to 16-8 overall and 4-3 in the Olympic League. Heritage improved to 19-8 and have clinched the Olympic title moving to a perfect 7-0 record with only one league game remaining.