Ray Conner
Sports Editor

Kern Valley’s summer basketball squad got off to a great start as they have won three of their first five games.

On June 3, playing in Bishop, the Broncs defeated Mineral County, Nevada 68-29, clobbered Lone Pine 67-28 and lost to Bishop 34-27. Ten days later, playing on their summer home court at South Fork, the Broncs lost to Mojave, but bounced back to beat the Crusaders of Immnual Christian 58-51.

In their two wins in Bishop, Kern Valley took control from the start and cruised to the easy victories.

Against Mineral County, Anthony Hernandez was the top scorer for the Broncs as he had 10 points.

Warren Pappas and Jake Hodge each scored eight points, while Dustin Heffner and Ignaciao Anzaldo each had six points. Jordan Lawson added five points, while Kenny Haigler rounded out the scoring with two points.

On the boards, Hodge led the team in rebounding with 10 rebounds. Haigler pulled down nine boards, while Lawson had six rebounds.

Lawson handed out six assists to lead the Broncs. Heffner was credited with four assists.

Against Lone Pine, Heffner led the team in scoring with 11 points, including one three-pointer.

Lawson scored nine points, while Pappas, Hernandez and Haigler each had six points. Hodge finished with four points, while Cory Stanfield and Anzaldo had two points apiece.

Hodge pulled down eight rebounds to lead Kern Valley. Haigler and Lawson each grabbed five boards, Pappas and Stanfield had four rebounds apiece. Heffner passed out five assists.

In their loss to Bishop, the Broncs top scorer was Lawson with 10 points. Pappas, Heffner, Haigler and Stanfield each had two points.

Head coach Brian Christianson said, “We did a number of things well today. I am especially pleased with our balanced scoring. However, like what I expect in the summer, there are still a number of things that we need to improve upon. I am glad that we got the opportunity to play Bishop on their home court in a meaningless summer game, so that we can get used to playing in their gym. I thought we got worn down in the second half, but Bishop did a good job of taking it to us. The players also enjoyed being guests on the Bishop Saturday Sports Radio Show.”

In their win over Immanual Christian, the Broncs would overcome a five-point deficit by outscoring the Crusaders 23-11 in the fourth quarter to grab the win.

Heffner and Lawson each had 14 points to lead the team in scoring.

Hernandez finished with 10 points, while Pappas and Haigler each scored eight points. Stanfield closed out the scoring with four points.

Haigler grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Broncs on the defensive side of the ball.

Pappas pulled down eight boards, while Heffner and Lawson each had seven rebounds in the game.

Christianson said, “I like how this team is not relying on one person to do the scoring. We also were mentally tough in being able to come back in the fourth quarter. We did a better job on defense in this game, but we can always play better defense.”

Taking on Mojave proved to be a tough task, as Pappas was injured in the first quarter taking away some of the Broncs offensive fire power.

Mojave broke away in the third quarter and never looked back to take the victory from Kern Valley.

Lawson led the team with 17 points, including hitting three from long-distance.

Hernandez scored eight points, while Stanfield had four. Pappas, Heffner, Kevin Mixon and Aaron LaFarga each had two points to round out the scoring.

Haigler grabbed eight rebounds to lead Kern Valley on the boards. Mixon had six boards, while Heffner had five rebounds.

Christianson added, “Pappas got hurt in the first quarter. For the most part, we did a good job against a tall athletic Mojave team. Again the team really started to show a tough mentality. I would really like to thank Lissa Robinson, Debbie Kennedy, Nate Blue, Steve Brucker, Kyle Ludington, Jeff Gould, Pat Clark, Jacque Blue and Lisa Gould.”