PLAYER
PROFILES

SPECIAL EVENTS:
* - Parent Night
** - Senior Night

2019-20 JUNIOR VARSITY SCHEDULE

2019-20 FRESHMAN SCHEDULE

On the night where we were able to honor our seniors the Tigers played very very well defeating the Maricopa Rams by the score of 91 - 40 which included all 9 of our seniors getting into the scoring column.

The game started quickly for the Tigers with back to back buckets by senior Spencer Taylor who earned his first start as a Tiger, then Brycen Long and Paul Maldonado followed that up with back to back to back threes, culminating with a Griffin Lamb slam in transition. Tigers up 29-12 at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter was much of the same for the Tigers with a Griffin Lamb three ball to start and Jaqwaun Myles' 10 points from steals and driving buckets. Going into the locker room at the break the Tigers were up big, 55-23.

The second half was very solid too with the Tigers outscoring the Rams in the 3rd quarter 22-9, including three more from downtown. High scorers on the night were Brycen Long's 20 points, Griffin Lamb's 16 points and Jaqwaun Myles' 12 points. Paul Maldonado had a nice floor game, defending, assisting on many of his teammates baskets and hitting two timely threes.

The real story of the game though were our 9 seniors: Brycen Long, Taylor Baldwin, Griffin Lamb, Herold Merrick, Spencer Taylor, Jaqwaun Myles, Paul Maldonado, Juan Cordova and Ian Splittorff. The seniors played for each other on this night and represented the Tigers well. It was a great night to be a TIger!

Playoff Time is up next for the Tigers. It looks like the Tigers will have earned themselves a top 8 seed which includes a 1st Round bye on Friday night. The Tigers finalized seed will not be known though until Saturday afternoon when the AIA has their Selection Show. It looks though that the Tigers will host the 2nd Round State Tournament game next Wednesday at 7P in The Jungle with the opponent yet to be determined. Thanks to all the GOONS, parents and fans for your continued support and we will need it for the playoffs too! GO TIGERS!


 

The Tigers were on the road Tuesday night versus one of their cross-town rivals of the Campo Verde Coyotes and came away with a 69-37 victory and improving their San Tan Region record to 8-0 and overall record to 20-4 on the season.

The Tigers started the game pretty sharp on offense with 20 first quarter points and spreading the wealth with 6 guys scoring. The defense was not quite as tight as the coaching staff would have liked to see, but the Tigers quickly fixed that by holding the Coyotes to only 2 points in the second quarter and went into the locker room with a 40-16 lead.

The second half was a little closer, but the Tigers did win each quarter which was nice to see. The Tigers were led in scoring and rebounding by Griffin Lamb who notched another double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. The Tigers shot the ball pretty good, which included two from downtown from Griffin. Also scoring in double figure points for the Tigers was Brycen Long with 15 points. Brycen also pulled down 6 boards and had 5 takeaways. Inside coaching staff joke there. Tampa Scott continues to play excellent basketball too, scoring 10 points off the bench and at times it looks like he has the ball on a string when handling it.

Up next for the Tigers is another San Tan Region game on the road Friday night versus the Higley Knights. Thanks to all the parents, students and fans they came out to support the guys!

 

Gilbert deals Casteel 91-62 defeat
January 31, 2020 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365

Gilbert High knows where its going in a couple of weeks. That's to the playoffs to try and defend its 5A boys basketball title. Casteel is not so fortunate.

No. 4 Gilbert was ready for Casteel's up-tempo, pressure style winning often in the transition game as the Tigers delivered a 92-61 thumping of the Colts at The Jungle.

Gilbert remained unbeaten in 5A San Tan Region play at 7-0 and extending its region record the past two seasons in the region to 17-0. Gilbert is 19-4 overall and 13-2 in power-ranking games. Casteel (8-15, 3-4 region and 6-9 prg) likely needs to win out to qualify for a play-in game at the No. 24 position. The Colts were No. 25 in Friday's latest power rankings.

Both teams competed Friday without key starters - Gilbert missing Brycen Long and Casteel Caelan Russell. Both were among their teams top two scorers this season and Long a veteran of last year's title team.

So without Long, Gilbert picked up a bigger than normal night from one of its other starters from last year - Paul Maldonado. Maldonado piled up 25 points mixing in four threes, transition hoops and strong moves to the basket for his points.

Picking up for Long in a starting role and off the bench, respectively, were Taylor Baldwin (eight points) and Nikko Pentelute (15 points). Long was adept as a finisher for three of his baskets and Pentelute showed confidence in burying a three for his first basket and delivered from there on offense.

"The game Casteel plays is not ours," Gilbert coach Jay Caserio said. "Without Brycen we were focused on good ball handling and limiting turnovers. We had 13 turnovers for the game. Given the number of possessions there were that wasn't a bad number.

"We were good in transition. For the most part we made good decisions when we had 3 on 2s and 2s on 1."

Gilbert made 34 field goals and at least 23 were lay-ups. The Tigers led 17-8 after the first quarter, 45-27 at halftime and 75-52 after three periods. A running clock kicked in with six minutes to play.

Additional double-figure scorers for Gilbert were guard Tampa Scott (18 points) and Griffin Lamb (10).

Casteel, which made mass substitutions to keep players fresh, was led in scoring by Devin Franks (20 points). The Colts have three games left -- all region games vs. Williams Field, Maricopa and Campo Verde. They are chasing Flowing Wells and Marana Mountain View for the final two spots. Both of those schools lost on Friday night. Campo Verde is right behind Casteel at No. 26 and not out of the chase for postseason.

 

For the second game in a row in The Jungle the Tigers were able to take down a San Tan Region foe by beating the Higley Knights by a score of 80 - 31. The Tigers from the jump were very sharp on both sides of the ball and for the first time in many games their play forced the opponent to burn an early timeout to stop the scoring run.

The Tigers jumped out to a 28- 11 first quarter lead by using a variety of full court pressure defenses which ended up leading to mainly Paul Maldonado and Brycen Long baskets. In fact Paul and Brycen combined for 19 of the Tigers 28 first quarter points. The second quarter individual scoring was a little more balanced, but crisp ball movement and pressuring defense led to a 21 point quarter culminated by a beautiful pass by Juan Cordova to a thunderous Griffin Lamb two handed dunk at the buzzer to take the Tigers in the locker room with a 49 - 16 lead.

The coaching staff was pleased to see the same effort and concentration to start the second half. The Tigers ran out to another 25 point quarter and defensively held the Knights to just 4 points in the third. Double digit scorers on the night were leading scorer Brycen Long with 20 points, Paul Maldonado with 19 points including 5 threes and Griffin Lamb with another double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Higley was led by their promising sophomore Devereaux Roberts with 12 points.

Up next for the Tigers is another long road trip to Maricopa Friday night who are led by numerous underclassmen and Coach Fuller who is as good as they get in Arizona.

 

The Tigers were back in region play Tuesday and playing their 3rd straight game on the road versus the well-coached Casteel Colts and played just well enough to pull out a 77 - 69 victory.

Casteel comes in with a fast-paced offense with multiple players with the ability to make shots, spear-headed by their leading scorer on the season, Deven Franks who is averaging 23 ppg. The Tigers started the game well, but Casteel, like they normally do, made shots to tie the score at 13 at the end of the 1st quarter. There was a little bit more scoring in the second quarter and the Tigers went into the locker room with a 4 point lead.

The Tigers went on a bit of a run to start the third quarter and had a chance to really put the clamps on the Colts, but timely three pointers got the Casteel within striking distance at the end of the period. Tigers 56, Colts 47. In the final stanza, Deven Franks was able to score 9 of his 19 points and running teammate Caelan Russell scored 7 of his 17 points to bring Casteel within 5 points. Countering, the Tigers took care of the ball and converted shots around the rim much better in the second half to keep the Colts at bay. Leading the Tigers in scoring was Brycen Long with 25 points. Griffin Lamb also scored 18 points and pulled down 13 rebounds. Paul Maldonado chipped in with 10 points too. Taylor Baldwin played a very very solid game in his first start this season with 9 points and it was evident his presence on the court affected the game on both sides of the ball.

Up next for the Tigers is home contest versus the cross-town rivals of Campo Verde Coyotes on Friday at 7P. See you there Goon Squad.

 A trip to South Carolina, facing future Power 5 basketball players, did wonders for Goodyear Millennium's team, despite going 1-3 in the Beach Ball Classic.

In its first game since the trip, Millennium looked every bit like the No. 1 team in Arizona, dominating Gilbert from the opening tip in a 72-43 rout at Millennium that was a rematch of last year's 5A championship game.

Gilbert (12-4) beat Millennium 38-37 in last year's state championship game on its way to a 29-1 season.

Gilbert has lost two of its last three games.

Millennium returned everybody from last year's team. But the Tigers didn't need 6-foot-9 junior DaRon Holmes to be at his best to get out to a 23-13 first-quarter lead that increased from there.

Holmes, who came into the game averaging 20.9 points, didn't score in the first quarter when he picked up two fouls.

He ended up with 14 points. Jackson, a junior point guard who is starting to get some high major college interest, showed off his increased shooting range and finished with 15 points.

"It was difficult," Holmes said. "Sometimes the refs are not on our side. You just have to battle it all out."

Holmes' supporting cast this year is stronger, because the players around him are a year older and a year better. Included in that bunch is Jackson, who averaged 11.5 points and 4.1 assists.

"We were trying to speed them up," Jackson said. "Last year, at state, they slowed us down."

Jackson said the trip to one of the biggest high school basketball invitationals in the nation helped.

"We played Marquette, Duke commits," Jackson said.

It was a difficult return for Millennium coach Ty Amundsen, who attended his mother's burial in the Bay Area in Northern California on Sunday.

"It was real difficult," Amundsen said.

Amundsen said it was important to come out fast on Thursday, even if his star player isn't doing most of the scoring.

"We've got depth," Amundsen said. "I think that's the one thing that gets overlooked on the team. You've got a guy like DaRon, and Justus Jackson. There are other guys who are very capable of playing.

"Our goal was to come in and use 10, 11, 12 guys, and keep that pressure on them."

Amundsen was able to empty his bench in the final quarter after the Tigers built a 30-point lead and got a running clock on Gilbert.

Jalan Early hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter for Millennium. Robbie Devries also hit a 3 in that big first quarter for the Tigers.

Gilbert was led by guard Brycen Long's 13 points.

 

The Tigers opened up 2020 and region play in THE JUNGLE Tuesday night versus the Williams Field Blackhawks and came away with a 70-50 victory, including a program sweep as both the JV and Freshman teams were able to come away with victories too.

The Tigers started off the game a little rusty and connecting from long range was a bit of a struggle, but the defense was strong enough to hold a 14-9 lead at the end of the first quarter. The offense started clicking in the second quarter leading to an 18 point quarter, sparked by Jaqwaun Myles' 10 points and 6 for 6 from the freethrow line. Montez Taylor who led Williams Field with 19 points knocked a big three at the buzzer, but the Tigers still held a 12 point lead by the score of 32-20.

The Tiger defense wasn't quite as locked-in in the second half, but Gilbert was able to slightly increase their lead each quarter. Offensively, Griffin Lamb led the Tigers with 21 points, including knocking down a nice three, a tip slam and going 2 for 2 from the line too. Also scoring double figure points for the Tigers was Houston Baptist commit Brycen Long with 18 points and Jaqwaun Myles with 16 points.

Up next for the Tigers is a big road game Thursday night as the Tigers go to Millennium as it will be the first time each time has faced each other since last season's exciting 5A State Championship game. Also shout out to ex-Tiger Conner Helvig who was back in town to watch the Tigers. The coaching staff enjoyed seeing you and introducing you to the current Tigers. Conner was a huge staple to our success at Gilbert. Conner will be graduating from Law School in May from Marquette University.