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Coach Darren Minami
and his Reedley Pirates dug deep into their hearts to pull out a
victory over the East Bakersfield Blades, 53-49, and advance to
the Division II Valley championship game this Thursday night against
Hoover. With the triumph the Pirates improved their
record on the season to 24-3.
The Pirates suffered
through a cold shooting first half and, when East's star guard John
Calvillo drilled a three pointer just before the buzzer sounded,
Minami's team found themselves down 29-20. Things did not look
any better early in the second half. Reedley's key interior
player, Pepijn Dekker, was saddled with his fourth personal foul,
East was grabbing key offensive rebounds, and the Pirates trailed by
12, 34-22 with 6:18 left in the third period.
But the Pirates, in
the words of point guard Jon Lepp, just "kept on
fighting." Jon Wallen said, "we kept our poise and
kept playing."
The comeback began
modestly enough. Colin Hofer stood at the free throw line at
the 5:59 mark and connected on the second of two free throws.
Then Wallen missed a free throw, but made the second. The
score was 34-24 with five minutes to go in the third.
The Pirates employed
a full court press and forced several East turnovers. Hofer
took advantage of them to score six straight points pulling his team
within four at 34-30. Building on Hofer's surge, Abel
Lucca connected on a clutch three off of an assist from
Wallen to pull his team within one. Then Jose Alvarez,
playing courageously in Dekker's place, scored on an acrobatic
lay-up off of a pass from Jordan Penner. The Pirates had the
lead at 35-34. When Wallen poured home a trey off of a pass
from Hofer just before the quarter ended, the Reedley gym was
rocking. The Pirates led 38-34 with eight minutes to go.
East's scoring
drought finally ended at the 6:38 mark of the final quarter.
The Blades soon tied the game at 38 only to see Wallen unknot the contest
with a long three off of an assist from Dekker. The game then
mutated into a tense affair with players giving their all on every
possession while the capacity crowd implored their respective
teams from the stands. When East's Cesar Menjivar scored on a drive
with two minutes left, the Pirates were down 47-45 and the season
hung in the balance.
After failing to
score on offense, the Pirates' defense forced a travelling
violation. Reedley passed the ball inside to Hofer who made a
turn-around jumper to tie the game at 47 with 1:02 remaining.
After a Blade missed two free throws while staring into the infamous
Pirate Pit, Wallen delivered a pass to Lepp, who scored on his own
post-up move. The Pirates were ahead 49-47 with 39 seconds
left.
On East's next
possession, Reedley's defense proved stubborn and forced a
missed shot. East was obligated to foul and chose Hofer, who
made both free throws to advance Reedley's lead to 51-47.
East's talented sophomore Derek Stancil made it 51-49 with nine
seconds left but the Pirates successfully inbounded to Wallen, who
was immediately fouled. The calm senior made both free throws
with eight seconds left to give Reedley the final winning margin,
53-49.
Afterwards Minami
pronounced, "we're moving on." Reedley advances to
the championship game thanks to another strong team effort.
Hofer led the Pirates in scoring with 22, including 14 in the second
half, and made several clutch steals. Wallen played his usual
outstanding all-around game and scored 15. Lucca added
six and played outstanding defense. Dekker tallied four while
being plagued with foul troubles. Andrew Busch made two free
throws and Alvarez played with great heart while scoring two points.
Lepp only scored two, but it was the basket that gave Reedley the
lead for good. Penner did not score but his defense was an
integral part of the Pirates' third quarter run. Ian Brinkman
also turned in some sturdy minutes.
The Division II
Valley championship game will take place in the Reedley gym this
Thursday night at 7 p.m.
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