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By Loren Kopff
Sports Editor | Follow X
December 2, 2025
The Artesia High boys basketball team was hoping to avoid something no other team in program history had done-go winless in its Artesia Varsity Winter Classic. The Pioneers, once down by six points in the first quarter against winless Eisenhower High, bounced back to lead by nine points midway through the fourth quarter.
But the Eagles made things interesting by nailing half a dozen three-pointers in the final 3:51 only to come up short as the Pioneers held on for a 72-69 win. Artesia, which won its second game of the season, lost its first three games of the tournament by an average of 20 points.
“The thing with us is we’re still a young team in actuality,” said Artesia head coach Jeff Myles. “We lost 11 seniors; eight guys who actually played, and even the guys who we brought back or bench guys who didn’t play much…even [senior Christian] Stewart, our big guy, he only played half the season. We’re just a young team and just trying to figure it out on the fly. It’s just growing pains.”
This is the first time since Myles has been the head coach at Artesia that he’s had a team so young, and that youth trailed the Eagles, who have seven juniors and four sophomores, for most of the first quarter, getting down 15-9 with 2:10 left in the stanza. But three-pointers from freshman Christopher Jones, sophomore Aiden Atkins and senior Kobe Young helped spark an 11-3 run to begin the second quarter.
The Pioneers had a one-point lead at the half and still had that same lead entering the fourth quarter as the hosts squandered a seven-point lead with 6:25 left in the third quarter. Eisenhower tied the contest three times in the stanza and took a 46-43 lead two and a half minutes later on a three-pointer from Dominic Gotay.
“One thing I’ve been preaching is competing, and we’ll always compete no matter if we’re down by 20 or down by 30,” said Myles. “Our guys are always going to play hard and show some resiliency; we competed very hard defensively. Offensively, shots come and go, and they made some great shots. I tip my hat to Eisenhower; there were some contested threes, and they made those threes. But our guys kind of hung in there and found a way to make a play at the end. So, I’ll take it.”
Eisenhower was true on nine of 30 three-pointers while Artesia was eight of 28 from beyond the arc. But just like it did to begin the second and third quarters, Artesia started the final quarter on a 9-1 run to lead 58-49, its largest advantage of the game. The Pioneers were still up by eight points with 64 seconds remaining in the contest before the Eagles began a barrage of perimeter shots. First, it was Damarion Flucker, then three straight from Isaiah Gomez, the last with no time remaining in the game.
In fact, when senior Jordan Heredia drained a downtown shot to give the Pioneers the eight-point lead, the team would not attempt another field goal. Artesia would go seven of 10 from the charity stripe in the final 44.5 seconds.
Heredia led the Pioneers with 17 points and had a pair of rebounds and as many steals while Stewart came off the bench to record 14 points, grab 10 rebounds and have a pair of assists. Atkins and Young each chipped in with 11 points with the former getting six rebounds and the latter four boards.
“We’re still trying to figure it out; if we’re a man or a zone team,” said Myles. “Last year, we were primarily a zone team. We’re still in a learning process. The game is based on our opposition; I scout out [opponents] and see film to see how we want to play that game. I know we’ll be better in January. Once they get more games under their belt, we’ll be alright.”
Artesia dropped a 65-58 contest to Mary Star of the Sea High this past Monday and will travel to Tarbut V’Torah High on Tuesday before going to the San Jose to participate in the 18th Annual Lynbrook Winter Classic, which begins on Thursday. It’s first opponent is Independence High out of San Jose.
Artesia had not lost the first game in its tournament until this season but the win against the Eagles put Myles at 10-10 in the tournament. In fact, this was the first time Myles had won the final game of the tournament. His predecessor, Ray Walker, went 13-11 in the Artesia Varsity Winter Classic, going 3-1 in the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
“Coach Walker did start this tournament, so thanks to him,” said Myles. “But this tournament is tough because we have good teams in it. It’s all teams who are probably going to make the playoffs. We don’t schedule this tournament just to get wins. We schedule it because we want competitive teams. We don’t put ourselves in the easy bracket; and when I seeded this tournament, we were number seven because I felt that’s where we were. So, we kind of finished where we were supposed to finish.”
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