Feb. 20, 2010
NCAL Finals Today at Bear River
The finals are set at Bear River High for today’s championship round of the Nevada County Athletic League boys middle school basketball tournament. In the 8th grade division, fittingly, it will be a match-up of the season’s co-champions as Union Hill takes on Weimar Hills at 3:15 in the tourney’s title game. Both Union Hill and Weimar Hills won nail-biters in Friday’s semi-finals to advance to the championship contest. Meanwhile, in the 7th grade tournament, Magnolia, fresh off an upset of top-seeded and regular season champion Weimar Hills, will test Seven Hills in a title bout that will tip-off at 2 p.m. Here’s a recap of games from Friday which were reported:
8th Grade
Weimar Hills 41 Pleasant Valley 40 – The No. 2 seeded Warriors had to rally from a 28-14 halftime deficit to squeeze past the upset-minded Vikings and advance to the championship game. Pleasant Valley held a 38-30 lead with as late as 2:46 to play before the Warriors picked up key baskets from Jack Baldoni and Jordan Balser to rally for the win. Michael Wilson’s 11 points led Weimar while Balser scored 10 and Chris Harshman added nine. John Jones continued his high scoring for the Vikings as he poured in 25 points. Nolan Stefani also tallied 13 for PV which will play Magnolia in the 8th grade third place game at 12:45 p.m.
7th Grade
Magnolia 28 Weimar Hills 23 – Taking advantage of some ice cold shooting by Weimar Hills, Magnolia, the tourney’s No. 5 seed, grabbed leads of 8-0 at the end of the first quarter and 16-2 by halftime to get on its way to avenging two previous losses to the Warriors. Weimar made a spirited second half comeback but poor foul shooting (3x12) prevented the regular season champs from coming all the way back. Playing well for Magnolia were Wyatt Mitzell (10 points), Scott Jensen (6 points), Brett Soloman (6 points) and Nick Mansuetti (4 points). Top scorers for Weimar were Ray Henry with 12 and Carrick Hoffart with six.
7 Hills 36 Gilmore 32 – In the second semi-final, 7Hills raced out to a 9-0 lead before Gilmore finally scored. The Raiders lead 12-2 at the end of the first quarter, however, the Bombers fought back in the second period using a full court press to force turnovers that led to easy baskets. Jericho Mendez had 10 points in the quarter and Jess Sutton had 8 included twothree-pointers to key the rally. Matt Demele kept the Raiders ahead as he had seven in the quarter and the Raiders lead 22-20 at the half. The pace slowed down dramatically in the 2nd half as the Bombers outscored the Raiders 6-4 in the third quarter and the game was knotted at 26. 7 Hills then outscored Gilmore 8-2 until a minute and a half was left in the game. Ahead by six 7 Hills tried to run out the clock but the scrappy Bombers hittwo quick shots to cut the lead to two points with only 20 seconds left. 7 Hills center Stephen Skaggs then hit a huge lay-up to ensure that the Raiders get to the finals. Trevor Humphreys had 12 to lead Seven Hills while Skaggs added eight and Demele seven. Jericho had 16 and Sutton 10 to lead Gilmore.