Feb. 22, 2009
Last Second Wins Highlight Title Games
Exciting is the only word to describe Saturday’s Nevada County Athletic League large school divisional championship games as both the tournament’s 8th and 7th grade contests proved to be real nail-biters that were decided in the final seconds. In the 8th grade contest, in a rubber match meeting between regular season league co-champs Weimar Hills and Union Hill, the Warriors used a baseline jumper by Michael Wilson with 14 seconds to play as the difference in a 42-40 win over the Bearcats. It was the second meeting between the two teams in less than a week and both games were decided by a basket or less. The win by Weimar Hills marked the second straight season the school’s 8th grade team has captured the NCAL tourney title. Meanwhile, in the 7th grade division, Seven Hills and Magnolia went tooth and nail at each other and produced an overtime thriller that wasn’t decided until a long range trey by Trevor Humphreys with three seconds to go enabled the Raiders to pull out a 42-41 win. Here’s a recap of the tourney games that were reported:
8th Grade
Championship
Weimar Hills 42 Union Hill 40 - In a classic cat and mouse championship game, Weimar Hills and Union Hill traded bucket for bucket most of the way before Wilson’s baseline score proved to be the difference and allowed the Warriors to bag the first place trophy. Weimar got off to a good start in the game as early scoring fro Wilson and Jack Baldoni forged the Warriors into a 12-6 lead after the opening stanza. However, Union Hill switched from its zone alignment to a man-to-man and used a good second quarter sparked by Michael Tapia and Jake Berger and a final second hoop by Kyle McCombs, the ‘Cats whittled the lead down and the two teams were left tied at halftime, 19-19. In the third quarter, Weimar Hills picked up some key baskets by Jordan Balser and Adam Guiterrez to grab the lead and heading into the final seven minutes the Warriors were clinging to a 34-29 advantage. In the final stanza, Union Hill rallied in the early minutes of the quarter with big hoops from Tapia, Berge and Beau DePois and the teams were knotted at 40-40 with less than 30 seconds to play. Following a Union Hill missed shot, Weimar pushed the ball up the court and Balser found Wilson up the right sideline where the Warrior guard squared up and buried what proved to be the game winner. Union Hill then tried to retie the count but misfired with Baldoni rebounding to secure the win. Baldoni led the championship game effort with 16 points while Wilson added eight, Balser and Cole Joyce six each, Guiterrez with four and Kevin Zachman with a pair. Union Hill was led by Tapia’s 16 markers, 11 from Berger and six from Depois. Weimar Hills, 26-5 on the season, now awaits its divisional bracketing for the upcoming Crescent City Tournament of Champions set for March 5-6 in the Del Norte County city.
7th Grade
Championship
Seven Hills 42 Magnolia 41 (OT) - . For the second time this week it took anextra session to decide the difference between the Raiders and Rattlers. And for the second time in one week Seven Hills emerged victorious. But this time it took a 25-foot three-point basket by Raiders guard Trevor Humphreys with 3 seconds left in the game to give the Raiders the first place trophy. Seven Hills got off to a hot start again scoring the first 7 points of the game. The Rattlers climbed back into the game as they trailedby only two points 8-6 at the end of one stanza. The Raiders then were able to extend their lead to four points at halftime but behind the hot shooting of Jordan Jiannino - who had 8 points in the third - Seven Hills went into the fourth quarter with a 29-23 lead. But Magnolia wouldn't go away. Led by Wyatt Mitzell’s 8 of his team high 12 points, the Rattlers rallied to send the game into overtime. In the first two and a half minutes of the overtime quarter, the only scoring was a layup by Magnolia guard Scott Jensen andtwo big free throws by Seven Hills center Stephen Skaggs. Then, with 14 seconds left, Magnolia got a clutch hoop from Spencer Wirth to set the stage for Humphreys who took the inbound pass, dribbled across half court and stopped five feet beyond the three point line where he calmly drained the game winner. Humpreys lead the Raiders with 20 points while Jiannino had 12 and Skaggs chipped in with 7. Magnolia was lead by Mitzell’s 12and John Voter's 10. Seven Hills finished the season winning its last nine regular season NCAL games and three in the tournament. Overall on the season the Raiders were 13-5.
3rd Place
Gilmore 36 Weimar Hills 35 – Keyed by its full-court pressure defense led by hustling guards Jess Sutton and Jericho Mendez, the Bombers built a 27-11 halftime lead over the Warriors but then had to hang on for dear life to take home the third place trophy. With Sutton and Mendez turning steals into lay-ups, after a close first quarter the Bombers out-pointed the Warriors 19-4 in a big second quarter where Mendez (10 points) and Sutton combined for 16 of the markers. But Weimar was able to make things interesting as they shutout Gilmore (11-0) in the third quarter and whittled the lead away before Ray Henry’s near midcourt three-pointer went in just before the final buzzer. Both Sutton and Mendez had 14 points each for Gilmore while Weimar, the regular season champion that finished the season 23-4 overall, was led by Carrick Hoffart’s eight points, six each from Henry and Pat Beninga, three by Ryan Hallman and two each from Jake Breeler, Scott Mosier, Alex Tobiasz, Jake Buol and Scott Irons.