Canyon Springs boys show need for improvement in road win

Canyon Springs’ boys basketball team will always accept a confidence-building road win early in the season.

But the Pioneers found no shortage of areas that need improvement during a 65-54 victory at Silverado on Tuesday.

Canyon Springs (2-0) nearly blew a double-digit first-half lead and allowed a much younger Silverado team to hang around until the end.

“I don’t think we did that well as a team,” Pioneers forward Adrian Snow said. “We were up by (12) and then in one minute we (were) up by four. We need to keep our lead going.”

Snow had 21 points and eight rebounds to carry Canyon Springs, which returns seven players who started at some point last season. Silverado (1-2) returns only three players, none of whom started last season.

“At times we played well, but overall I think we can play a lot better,” said Canyon Springs coach Daryl Branham, citing rebounding and help defense as areas of concern. “To go into somebody else’s place and win is always good, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Canyon Springs never trailed after going on a 10-1 spurt for a 10-5 lead, but the Pioneers couldn’t pull away. Silverado’s Dwayne Marshall’s 3-pointer from the corner at the halftime buzzer capped an 8-0 run that got the Skyhawks within 34-30.

Silverado was still within four points after David Lutomski scored in the lane early in the fourth quarter, but Canyon Springs’ Jeremy Alexander answered with a 3-pointer for a 54-47 lead to end the threat.

Michael Thompson added 13 points and Alexander supplied 10 points and six rebounds for the Pioneers.

Nick Allen scored 11 points to lead balanced Silverado, which was hurt by 5-for-13 free-throw shooting. Lutomski added seven points and eight rebounds.