Tyler Simpson is a Cronkite ASU journalism student assigned to cover Central High School for AZPreps365.com

PHOENIX- The Central Bobcats hosted the Sunrise Mountain Mustangs on Thursday night and lost their second straight home contest, 60-27. The Bobcats committed 20 turnovers in the first half, and seven more in the second half. The shooting was also ice-cold.

“We’re looking on improving our scoring,” said coach Darren Bustos. “If we don’t score then we won’t win many games.”

Twenty-seven points are the second-fewest amount of points in school history, the first being in 2019 against Higley. “We’re a young team,” said Bustos. “We’re having a hard time putting the ball in the basket.”

The first quarter was a tale of missed three-pointers and a plethora of turnovers. Most of the turnovers were from poor passes and the ball being stripped away. Central scored just nine points but held the Mustangs to 11.

“I felt like we were getting good looks, but they weren't falling,” said Sunrise Mountain head coach Gary Rath. “They were contested, they did a good job, they played really hard, he’s just under-manned.”

On the other side of the court, the Mustangs also commited a surfeit of turnovers. The Bobcats played very tight defense, trapping their opponents in the paint by double-teaming, then stripping the ball away. 

The main component of the loss Thursday night was the inability to score. The Bobcats scored two points midway through the second quarter from a layup by Jayshawn James. 

It was a very defensive game where both teams were missing layup after layup. Sunrise Mountain managed to score just enough points in the second quarter to extend the lead to 13 points, 24-11.

As the Bobcats strutted over to the locker room at the end of the first half, Bustos yelled out, “Twenty turnovers, that's how bad we are playing.”

The second half was a different story for Sunrise Mountain. The team came out all guns blazing, going on a 10-point unanswered scoring run led by junior forward Carter Giddens. Giddens scored the team-high of 14 points with two made three-pointers. 

Central continued to struggle offensively in the second half but did commit fewer turnovers. The Bobcats trailed, 47-19, at the end of the third quarter. James, who would wind up as the Bobcats' leading scorer with nine points, began taking almost all of Central's shots. It was to no avail.

“We didn’t have a season last year and all these other teams played last year,” said Bustos. “We were at home and couldn’t do anything, so we are having a hard time catching up.”

The Bobcats fall to 0-2 in the regular season and will play Arcadia High School Friday night. However, Bustos has had plenty of success coaching the Bobcats for 20 years. Central has had a winning record eight of the last ten seasons and will look to improve this season.

Sunrise Mountain stays undefeated in the regular season at 2-0 and will play Millenium back at home Friday night. Both teams are in the 5A conference, Sunrise Mountain being in the Northwest region and Central in the Metro region.