Motivational speaker Denis Waitley likes to tell his audiences, “Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future.”
The Homestead boys basketball team apparently agrees with Waitley.
A week after settling for third place in the Cupertino Shootout, the Mustangs turned the lessons learned from losing an overtime heartbreaker against Bellarmine Prep into three victories and the Lynbrook Winter Hoops Classic championship last week.
The Mustangs, who have won five of their first six games this season, followed up wins over host Lynbrook and San Mateo with a 64-52 triumph over Harker in the tourney finals last Saturday night behind a combined 35 points from seniors Jay Slaney and Aditya Reddy.
Clinging to a 32-29 lead at the half, Homestead broke the game open with a 20-11 third-quarter outburst.
Slaney, who has scored in double figures in all six Mustang games this season while averaging 14.5 points per contest, led all scorers with 18 points, equaling his single-game high this season. Reddy, who is also averaging 14.5 points per game so far this year, added 17. Junior DeAngelo Blackwell chipped in with nine points and senior Collin Spence contributed six to go along with a game-best 11 assists.
Led by Slaney’s 11 rebounds and senior Josh Sarmiento’s seven, the Mustangs dominated the boards with 33 rebounds, including 20 on the defensive end.
The Mustangs, whose only loss so far this season was a 57-55 overtime setback at the hands of Bellarmine in the semifinals of the Cupertino Shootout, opened the Lynbrook event by edging the host Vikings 62-59.
Spence registered game-highs for points (19) and assists (12) to spark the Mustangs, while Slaney and Reddy each netted 15 points.
In the semifinals, Homestead raced to a 17-9 first-quarter lead and never looked back en route to a relatively easy 58-48 triumph over the San Mateo Bearcats.
Reddy drained a personal season-high 21 points, 15 coming on five three-pointers, to spur Homestead past San Mateo and into the tourney finals.
Slaney popped in 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, and Spence played a brilliant all-around game with 10 points, nine assists, five rebounds and two steals in support of Reddy.
The Vikings, meanwhile, bounced back from their opening loss to the Mustangs to beat both Sobrato and Santa Teresa to capture the tourney’s consolation crown.
Varun Parthasarathy pumped in 16 points, Jon Liang canned 15 and team captain Victor Yu tossed in 13 to lead a balanced Lynbrook attack in a 64-55 victory over Sobrato, and then the Vikes outlasted Santa Teresa 55-50 in the consolation finals.
Monta Vista salvaged seventh place honors with a 52-40 win over Sobrato after losing to both Prospect and Santa Teresa in the first two rounds.
Juniors Andrew Ding and Mark Geha tallied 11 and 10 points, respectively, and senior Aunoy Poddar added nine to lead the Mats past Sobrato, improving their season record to 3-2.
The Matadors, who had entered the tournament on a modest two-game win streak, were outscored in all four quarters in their 64-46 tourney-opening loss to Prospect.
Senior Robert Lee, who scored a team-high 13 points and dished out four assists, and Ding, who dropped in 10 points, were bright spots in the loss for Monta Vista.
At the Fukushima Invitational at Independence, the Fremont Firebirds captured third place honors by sandwiching wins over Mission of San Francisco and Andrew Hill around a semi-final loss to eventual tourney runner-up Independence.
A 23-9 third-quarter explosion turned a tight, five-point game into a 60-39 rout in the Firebirds’ battle with Hill for the third-place trophy.
Mo Abdulrasul led the Fremont effort with a game-high 19 points, six rebounds and a pair of steals. And he received plenty of support from Jake Burriss (16 points, 5 rebounds), Eric Siegel (10 points, 5 rebounds) and Omar Shorab (8 rebounds).
Fremont had opened the tournament in fine fashion, toppling Mission 71-62 as Abdulrasul and Burriss combined to pour in 43 points.
Abdulrasul, who has scored 20-plus points in three of Fremont’s four games and is averaging 22.2 points per game thus far this season, drilled in 23 points and Burris meshed 20, in addition to grabbing eight rebounds. Shorab led the ‘Birds with 10 rebounds.
In the semifinals against the host Sixers, Fremont ran out to a 15-4 lead after one quarter but ultimately squandered a 13-point lead that they took into the final period when Independence rallied to outscore the Firebirds 24-10 in the final 8 minutes for a stunning 52-51 victory.
Wasted in the loss was a 23-point performance by Abdulrasul, not to mention a 10-point, eight-rebound effort by Shorab.
Cupertino, meanwhile, settled for seventh place for the second straight week, losing to Independence and Mission before beating Westmont, duplicating their pattern at their own season-opening tourney.
Ajaypal Singh knocked down 15 points and Franklin Kao tallied 10 to spark the Pioneers past Westmont 49-42.
George Ellegood added eight points, and Ethan Shen and Kyle Avvakumovits hit six each.
The Pioneers opened tourney play with a 67-50 setback at the hand of Independence despite a season-high 26 points by Singh, who knocked down 11 of 20 shots from the field. Avvakumovits tossed in 12 points in the loss.
In second round play, Cupertino was pummeled 73-42 by Mission. Singh topped the Pioneers with 11 and Koshi Huynh tossed in 10.
