ANAHEIM — Even a shorthanded Canyon boys basketball team is a very good team.
The Comanches defeated Cypress 77-58 on Wednesday in a nonleague game at Canyon High.
Canyon played Wednesday and will play the rest of the season without junior guard Joshua Goodall, who had been starting. He suffered a broken leg during last week’s North Orange County Championship when he landed foot-first on a basketball.
Comanches 6-5 sophomore forward Brandon Benjamin and senior guard Johnathan Carey scored 16 points each Wednesday. Benjamin, All-Orange County first team last season, scored his six baskets his usual ways, with all of them coming within 3 feet of the basket and some of those off of offensive rebounds. He had a game-high nine rebounds total.
Carey made four 3-pointers, including three in a row in the third quarter.
Jaden Goodall, twin brother of Joshua, scored 13 points and Connor Leonard had 12 points with four steals for Canyon.
The Comanches, No. 2 in the Orange County Top 25 after starting the season at No. 1, is 11-1. Their next game is Dec. 27 when they play in the elite Platinum Division of The Classic at Damien tournament.
Cypress is 4-6. One of its wins was against La Serna, the team that beat Canyon on Saturday in the championship game of the North Orange County Championships.
The Centurions play at Los Altos on Thursday.
Senior forward Kason White led Cypress with 16 points. He scored eight points in the first quarter after which the Centurions had a 15-13 lead.
Canyon made only four of its 13 shots in the first quarter. They were 7 for 12 in the second quarter, outscoring Cypress by seven points to take a 32-27 lead into halftime. Carey’s three 3s in the third quarter were part of a 27-point period, and the Comanches carried 59-42 advantage into the fourth quarter.
Benjamin said slow starts have been frequent for Canyon during the early weeks of this season, but the Comanches were more consist Wednesday.
“In the second half we pick it up and finish off games really well,” Benjamin said. “I feel like this game, the whole game, we played hard and came out with intensity.”
Canyon sophomore Brandon Benjamin scored 16 points with nine rebounds in the Comanches’ 78-58 win over Cypress…. pic.twitter.com/slrxrwF5GX
— Steve Fryer (@SteveFryer) December 15, 2022
“We’re going to be in every game because we’re going to make it really hard for other people to score,” Harrison said. “We missed a lot of shots early but we’re always going to be there because of our defense.”
Harrison was particularly pleased by the play of Leonard.
“I think he might be the best defender in Orange County,” Harrison said. “He’s such an impactful player because he can impact the game in so many different ways.”