Pressure Gauge

AGOURA HILLS — It’s not a team blessed with players who can jump out of the gym.

Nor is its roster loaded with individuals who can seemingly get up and down the court in the blink of an eye.

But the Agoura High boys’ basketball team is 8-0, thanks to a tenacious full-court press installed by first-year Coach Joe Riccio.

The Chargers were 4-21 last season and finished seventh--and last--in the Marmonte League with a 2-10 record. But they’ve won the Burbank-Hoover and Montclair Prep tournaments this season and are ranked seventh in the region by The Times.

“We know that people think our schedule has been kind of light,” senior guard Johnny Gray said. “But we feel like we can beat any team right now.”

A victory in its next game might quiet the naysayers. The Chargers play Grant--ranked sixth in the region--in the first round of the Chaminade tournament Dec. 27.

That tournament will be followed by a Marmonte opener against Thousand Oaks, ranked fourth, on Jan. 3.

“I think everyone [in the Marmonte League] needs to watch out for us,” Riccio said two weeks ago. “I know everyone is talking about Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Westlake, and I have a lot of respect for those programs. But we’re a good team. I don’t think there’s a team in Ventura County that has as much depth as us.”

Agoura typically uses all 12 of its players during games, often helping the Chargers wear down opponents in the fourth quarter.

“That’s the biggest difference between this [season] and last [season],” senior guard Brett Spaulding said. “In most of our games last year, we just didn’t play well in the fourth quarter.”

Injuries also contributed to Agoura’s woes. Spaulding missed several games early in the season with a hairline fracture in his right hip and senior Andrew Morrow was slow to return from preseason knee surgery. Leading scorer Adam Allegro suffered a severely sprained left ankle that sidelined him for 13 of the final 14 games.

“Last year was just total bad luck,” former Agoura coach Bill Sanchez said. “We didn’t have any breaks from day one.”

Sanchez resigned from his coaching position in March, saying he was frustrated with a lack of administrative support. But Riccio was focused on the future when he was hired in May.

“I told the players that there was no looking back when I came in here,” he said. “That last season was behind them and things would be totally different this year.”

The players didn’t realize how different until two weeks later when Riccio informed them they were going to employ a full-court press for the entire game.

“We didn’t feel it was right; we didn’t want to do it,” said Kevin Cornwell, a 6-foot-6 junior forward-center. “We didn’t think we were fast enough to rotate on defense, but we’ve discovered that we are.”

Gray and Spaulding had doubts, but Riccio never heard any complaints.

“They were open to suggestions,” Riccio said. “I think they were willing to try just about anything after the season they had had.”

It took time for the players to get in the shape needed to effectively apply the press, but Agoura had a 20-6 record in summer games.

The highlight was a second-place finish to Carson in the Palm Springs tournament, despite playing without Allegro, who sat out the tournament because he didn’t want to tax his ankle after playing in a club tournament the previous week.

“That showed me a lot,” said Gray, whose father Johnny holds the U.S. record in the 800-meter run. “After that tournament, I said, ‘OK. Our team is good. We can do good using this press.’ ”

Agoura defeated Los Angeles, 64-55, Burbank, 70-55, and Pasadena Marshall, 61-52, in the season-opening Burbank-Hoover tournament before beating Oak Park, 71-52, in a nonleague game Dec. 2.

Then came victories over Thousand Oaks Hillcrest Christian, Kilpatrick, Armenian General Benevolent and Yeshiva in the Montclair Prep tournament.

“I know people are going to say we didn’t play anyone in that tournament,” Riccio said. “But Kilpatrick has a very athletic team and Yeshiva didn’t miss a single three-point shot against us in the first half.”

It would be easy to credit Riccio for turning around Agoura’s fortunes, but the former athletic director and girls’ basketball coach at Santa Paula High says his players deserve the praise.

“I’ve got the easy job,” he said. “They’re the ones who are busting their butts in practice.”

Agoura’s practices can be very intense as Riccio often splits the team into two six-man squads that play five-on-five full-court games in which points are awarded not only for scoring a basket, but for forcing a turnover, getting the ball past the half-court line against the press and getting an offensive or defensive rebound.

“I think the good thing about our team is that we all love each other,” said Allegro, a 6-5 guard-forward who has accepted an appointment to the Naval Academy. “But on the court, we get really competitive, which is really good because then when we get in a game, we can be pretty tenacious against our opponents.”