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His coach just had one word to describe him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a gamer,\u201d Bulldogs coach Tyson Aye said. \u201cHe lives for stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Konjuhi isn\u2019t new to big games.<\/p>\n
After moving from Anchorage, Alaska to Houston when he was 12 he played fort Cy-Fair High School before playing internationally for the Kosovoan U20 National Team.<\/p>\n
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Hancock guard Trenton Lavander drives to the basket against Cypress College.<\/p>\n
Ryan Kuhn, Staff<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying for my country was the biggest honor I\u2019ve had thus far,\u201d Konjuhi said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of elite competition out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was also a first team all-Western State Conference guard last season for Hancock.<\/p>\n
Konjuhi was held until the final minute of the first half to score his first bucket and it didn\u2019t seem like anyone could get into a rhythm.<\/p>\n
Both teams battled through a low scoring first half with Cypress getting a slight edge.<\/p>\n
The Chargers held a 15-7 lead 10 minutes into the game when Jack Rivera hit a jump shot but the Bulldogs never let their deficit get too great.<\/p>\n
Sign up to receive headlines in your inbox!<\/p>\n
Breaking News | Local Sports | Daily Headlines | Local Obituaries | Weather | Local Offers<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t play very well but we showed resilience and showed that this is a team that cares for one another,\u201d Aye said.<\/p>\n
Trenton Lavender hit a couple of free throws to cut the game down to four points and later in the half Daiso Gonzalez hit a baseline jump shot to cut Cypress\u2019 lead down to three points.<\/p>\n
After a dismal 32 percent shooting from\u00a0the field and 20 percent shooting from behind the 3-point arc, the Bulldogs entered halftime in a manageable 30-25 hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe faced some adversity but we handled it well.\u201d Konjuhi said.<\/p>\n
Cypress continued to hold onto its lead throughout the second half even though Allan Hancock kept answering on the other end of the court.<\/p>\n
The Chargers thought they would create some space when Rivera hit his sixth 3-pointer of the game but on the other end of the court Konjuhi started to take control.<\/p>\n
Konjuhi scored nine straight points for Hancock to come within a point with six minutes to go and finally took the lead for the first time since the opening three minutes with a 3-pointer in the corner with 4:50 left.<\/p>\n
Cypress tied the game in the final two minutes but again Konjuhi hit another 3-pointer this time from the other corner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just trying to give my team the lead,\u201d Konjuhi said with a smile. \u201cI\u2019m just glad it went in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hancock never relinquished its lead for the remaining 1:50 and eventually the team let out a big sigh of relief and celebrated the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was big win because we were having some doubts earlier in the game,\u201d Konjuhi said. \u201cWe really pushed through and stayed focused.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with Konjuhi, Lavender scored 12 points before fouling out and Gonzalez finished with 11 points.<\/p>\n
Adam Silmon left the game in the second half with a bloody nose.<\/p>\n
While Western State Conference play begins Jan. 7 with a home game against Oxnard College, the Bulldogs will travel to Lemoore College just outside of Hanford for their final non-conference test.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are a very talented team,\u201d Aye said of Lemoore. \u201cWe need to remain focused.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hancock\u2019s men\u2019s basketball needed a spark on Tuesday afternoon against Cypress College. The Bulldogs saw two of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[71347,40149,71348,1611,7,1149,217,71350,1609,4251,736,2561,231,772,1544,66,1612,71349],"class_list":["post-509124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-ahc","tag-allan-hancock-college","tag-arlind-konjuhi","tag-ball-games","tag-basketball","tag-bulldogs","tag-college-basketball","tag-daiso-gonzalez","tag-indoor-sports","tag-local-sports","tag-men","tag-mens-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-sports","tag-team-sports","tag-tyson-aye"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115817994316052306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}