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Darren Minami and his
Reedley Pirates advanced to the semi-finals in the Division II
playoffs with a 47-36 triumph over the North Stars.
The game, played on
the Pirates' home court, proved an arduous challenge for Minami's
team. The Stars came out in a zone defense that proved
difficult for the Pirates to decipher. Reedley was down 9-3
with just over a minute remaining in the initial eight minutes when
Jon Lepp nailed a three pointer from the top of the key. Jose
Alvarez followed with two free throws to cut the margin to 9-8 after
one quarter.
Reedley's struggles
continued in the second quarter as the home team trailed throughout
until Lepp connected on a three with 1:27 remaining to give Reedley
its first lead of the game at 19-17. The score remained frozen
at 19-17 as the final seconds of the half ticked away.
Lepp, the consummate
assists-oriented point guard, made yet another trey early in the
third quarter to push the lead to 25-17. But the dog tough
Stars would not go quietly into the night. The Pirates
maintained their advantage in part due to the hustling defense of Lepp,
Abel Lucca, and Jordan Penner on North's skilled guard Jonathan
Machado. At the end of three quarters the Pirates led 31-24.
In the fourth quarter
the Pirates turned to Jon Wallen. Wallen did all the little
things throughout the game but did not score until the last minute
of the third quarter. In the final period the Pirates' top
scorer contributed nine crucial points as the home team prevailed.
Afterwards Lepp
complemented the Stars for their scrappy play and noted the
essential truth that "it was ugly but we got the win."
Assistant Coach Jorge
Delport commented that "we picked a good game to have our worst
shooting night but North is a fundamentally sound team."
Coach Minami, happy
with his team's 23-3 record, could only say with a sigh of relief,
"we're moving on." His team is moving on to next
Tuesday night when the Pirates, the number two seed in Division II, host
the number three seeded East High Blades of Bakersfield.
Leading the Pirates
in scoring was Lucca with 13, including nine points in the first
half on three three-point shots. Lepp scored 12 and Wallen
added 11 on the night. Pepijn Dekker scored 4 while playing
another great game under the glass. Colin Hofer tallied 3
and absorbed a brutal fall late in the third quarter. Alvarez
and Ian Brinkman each notched 2 points to round out the Pirates'
scoring.
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