The twin towers of Kevin Cockerham and Tremaine Fuqua helped Skyline 17-12 (4-3) defeat De Anza 14-14 (1-6) 73-65 Feb. 12. Cockerham and Fuqua scored eight and 21 points respectively. Cockerham grabbed seven rebounds.
     “It’s not about my shot,” Cockerham said. “It’s about my rebounding and energy that I bring to the team. They thrive off me and my energy that is what I play with. I am playing on how my game comes to me.”
     Skyline head coach Tony Raffetto said that he thinks Cockerham there are other possibilities to have big games. In the past 15 games the Trojans have gone 11- 4.
     “Kevin does all the stuff that other people aren’t willing to do sometimes,” Raffetto said. “You don’t have to score to dominate a game. I think now he realizes if we need to win games there are other things to do than shoot the basketball.
     I never thought I would say this, but Kevin Cockerham maybe the major reason where we are right now and be able to turn this around.”
     Late in the first half, with the Trojans leading 30-28, Eldridge Henderson was intentionally fouled and shot two free throws and made the score 32-28. Skyline kept possession and teammate Jason Holman made a three-pointer from the far corner, in front of De Anza’s bench to have a quick five-point swing in their favor. Holman scored 10 points in the game.
     “That was huge,” Raffetto said. “Those are shots we expect (Holman) to hit. That was a big moment to capitalize go two points here and three points. We need him to make some big shots if we need to beat some teams down the stretch.”
     Oklahoma State bound Fuqua is another reason why Skyline is where they are now, because his team depends on him to make huge baskets when called upon.
     In his career, Fuqua has played 66 games- 37 last season and 29 this season.
     With the Trojans leading 21-16, after a missed shot by De Anza, Fuqua got the rebound and threw an outlet pass to Hasan Houston for an open lay-up. To put Skyline’s lead up to 23-16 and forced DeAnza to call a timeout with 9:14 to play in the first half. Houston scored 10 points. Fuqua had nine rebounds.
     “Tremaine, whenever he is feeling good, barely nobody can stop him,” Cockerham said. “At the same time he needs somebody to push him and tell him ‘this is what you got to do.’ Once you realize he could do it and once you realize he is unstoppable at it, he pursues it. Once it’s in his head he is going to have a big game, every game.”
     De Anza tried to make a comeback cutting the Trojan lead to seven points 69-62 late in the second half when Keith Miyakusu of De Anza scored three of his 18 points with 1:19 to play.
     “(Miyakusu) was really good and then fatigue set in,” said De Anza head coach Mike Riley. “When he is 100 percent, he is a great player.”
     Another Trojan that played well along with Fuqua and Cockerham was Eldridge Henderson. Henderson was second on the team in scoring 16 points against DeAnza. Both Fuqua and Henderson made a great tandem for teams to try to stop.
     “During the beginning of the season we knew that me and Eldridge was the reason our team was going to go all the way,” Fuqua said. “We just try to do our job and put some points on the board and help the team out.”