HANFORD -- Hanford West High's boys basketball season opener against Monache was a frigid one -- literally.

The Huskies managed to down the Marauders 55-52 despite shooting 28 percent from the field.

But conditions inside the Event Center were even chillier, as the heaters were not working properly and circulating the cold outside air in the gym.

And Hanford West needed a couple of quarters to warm up, shooting just 6-for-30 in the first half.

"It took us a while to get going, but you could tell that we were the much fresher team in the fourth quarter," Hanford West coach Tim Caudillo said.

The Huskies knocked down 11 free throws in the fourth period and senior point guard Roy Ramirez came through with seven fourth-quarter points to break open a close game.

Monache trailed 38-35 entering the final stanza and by as much as 10 points in the fourth period, but came back down the stretch behind 3-point shooting.

Christian Crouzet knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and Cameron Miller hit a clutch 3-point bucket with less than 20 seconds to play to cut the Hanford West lead to 54-52.

"They got hot there at the end," Caudillo said.

After Miller's 3-pointer Hanford West turned the ball over. and the Marauders had a chance to tie the game.

But Jordan Howard missed an easy bucket inside and Hanford West's Warren Moon pulled down the rebound and pushed the ball ahead to Ramirez, who was fouled with 7.1 seconds to play.

Ramirez made one of two free throws and Monache was able to get a good look at the tying score, but Miller just missed as time expired.

"I thought it was a solid win. We got off to a good first step. We had some little minor mistakes here and there, but I thought it was a good win," Caudillo said.

Ramirez was less than impressed with his performance and his teams.

"We had way too many turnovers, we weren't boxing out and we were allowing them way too many offensive rebounds," Ramirez said. "We weren't playing very smart and that let them cut into our lead pretty quick at the end."

Ramirez led the Huskies with 12 points and seven steals. Scooter Coleman added 10 points eight rebounds and Erik Munoz and Jeff Martin added eight points apiece.

Miller led all scorers with 16 and Howard added 13 points and eight rebounds.

"I thought that we had big contributions from our bench and that really helped tonight. We had some kids step up and do pretty well," Caudillo said.

Monache downed Hanford West 54-33 in the junior varsity game.

Sean Barboa scored 12 points and Darrian Sanders added eight for the Huskies, who trailed 24-17 at the half and didn't score a third quarter point.

The Huskies freshman team defeated Monache 49-26. Chris Stenschke led Hanford West with 15 points.

(Nov. 28, 2007)