The Skyline Trojans won their first round playoff game against the Reedley Tigers 75-65 Feb. 28 and advance to the second round.
     Skyline (19-14) opened the game up leading by nine points 10-1 after Trojans center Tremaine Fuqua scored three of his seven points that forced the Tigers to call a time-out with 15:36 early in the first half. But the Tigers (13-19) cut the lead to one 12-11 after Reedley’s Jarred Contente scored three of his 16 points and forced the Trojans to call a time-out with 12:53 to play in the first half. The Tigers had their lone lead in the game when Will Reeves stole the ball and scored two of his seven points on a lay up. But later in the half the Trojans retained the lead as forward Jason Holman stole the ball and gave an outlet to forward Rod Picou for the lay up who scored 13 points to up their lead to 29-13. By half time the Trojans lead 39-22. Coming off the bench for Skyline, Kevin Cockerham played with a lot of energy scoring 17 points and grabbed key rebounds.
     “He’s got a lot of heart,” said Skyline head coach Tony affetto. “He is what I want us to be about. You play hard, bust your ass that is what he does. He showed tonight he played big.”
      The Tigers, during the duration of the second half chipped away the Trojan lead from 17 down to 10, then seven points 64-57 after Reedley’s Myron Jenkins scored three of his team high 21 points to keep his team in the game.
     “He was solid,” Fonseca said. “Jenkins had a heck of a game he is a tough kid.”
     Trojans guard Eldridge Henderson scored a game high 23 points, most of his points from the free throw line shooting 11 of 12 from the free throw line.
      “Eldridge is always aggressive,” Picou said. “He gets to the line because he is strong and aggressive and he attacks the basket. He has the mindset of a post player even though he plays the guard.”
     One of the reasons why the Trojans are advancing to the second round was because of their rebounds and free throws. As a team, the Trojans went 26 of 31 shooting 84% percent from the free throw line in the game. In the first half, they shot 80% (4 out of 5) and in the second half 85% (22 out of 26).
     “That is what you are supposed to be doing that is where our strengths are,” Raffetto said. “We are strong and big so we want to rebound and we work on a lot of free throws we spend a lot of time shooting foul shots we better win. Those are the two things that will take us.”
     With the Trojans leading 64-57 after Jenkins three pointer, the Trojans needed a big shot and Henderson was the guy to hit the big shot and he scored on a jump shot to increase their lead to 66-57 with 3:08 to play in the game. The Trojans will move on to either play the winner of Feather River (23-8) or Cabrillio (13-17) March 5. Skyline will be eager to play. “Nothing is going to change we are going to play hard, play defense, watch film, understand the chemistry of the team, and go in there and try to break them down.”