Rams, Falcons set to play for Garces tournament crown
-
1 of 3By Casey Christie/ The Californian
Garces player Tim Pena is guarded by Mission Oak players Kollan Mundley, right, and Matt Zorn, under the boards during a semifinal tournament game Friday at Garces Memorial High School.
click to collapse -
2 of 3By Casey Christie/ The Californian
Garces High's Tim Pena gets past Mission Oak High's Austin Molezzo for a shot under the basket during the Garces Memorial High School semifinal no. 1 tournament game Friday night in Bakersfield.
click to collapse -
3 of 3
By Casey Christie/ The Californian
Garces High's Croney Sheldon hustles past Mission Oak High's LeAndre Jefferson in a semifinal game Friday night in the Garces High tournament.
click to collapse
BY ZACH EWING Californian staff writer zewing@bakersfield.com
Two boys basketball semifinals Friday night that couldn't have been much more different have yielded an intriguing title game of the Garces Holiday Hoops Challenge.
In the first semifinal, Garces ran and shot its way past Tulare-Mission Oak, 90-88 in overtime behind virtuoso performances from junior Rashad Jackson (34 points, 12 rebounds), sophomore Sheldon Croney (25 points, 13 rebounds, six assists) and senior Tim Pena (24 points).
In the second, Independence slugged its way past Bakersfield, 46-37. After the gym had emptied, Garces coach Gino Lacava caught Independence coach Stan Davis on his way out the door. Their teams will meet at 8 tonight in the championship game.
"We're all finesse, and you guys are like Mike Tyson," Lacava told Davis. "It's gonna be like Sugar Ray Leonard against Mike Tyson tomorrow."
The Rams (9-3) led for most of the night and by as many as 16 in the first half before Mission Oak (11-3) made a big run behind the shooting of guards Blake Shannon (27 points) and Bobby Alvarado (22 points) and the inside game of Kollan Mundley (20 points, 22 rebounds).
“It was a battle all the way to the end,” Jackson said. “It’s nice that way. That’s how I like it.”
Croney put back a missed shot to tie the game at 75 with three seconds left in regulation, and Jackson took care of the end of overtime.
He missed two free throws that could have iced the game for Garces with 11 seconds left, but then stripped the ball from Shannon — who had scored 21 points since halftime — on the other end and hit two free throws with 3 ticks on the clock to make up for it.
“(The misses) were on my mind a little bit, but I had to let it go and move on to the next play, because that was just as important,” Jackson said. “It’s a great win for us.”
Croney flirted with a triple-double for the second straight night and kept Mission Oak at bay with 19 second-half points and four more in overtime.
“Sheldon is a great sophomore,” Jackson said. “He won this game for us.”
Now the Rams will play Independence (14-1), which avenged its only loss of the season, an overtime defeat to Bakersfield in the semifinals of the Lloyd Williams tournament at North.
In this one, the Falcons trailed 22-19 at halftime but turned up the defense after that, allowing the Drillers only seven points over the next 13 minutes. During that time, Independence built a double-digit lead.
“It was a grinder,” Davis said. “We decided we had to be physical with them and not back down.”
In the first meeting, Independence built a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter only to see Bakersfield storm back and eventually win in overtime. The Drillers pushed back in this one, too, but got no closer than six in the closing minutes.
“Last time they kind of willed their way back in it; this time, we stood our ground a little better,” Davis said. “We got a little more bulldog.”
Mission Oak will play Bakersfield at 6:30 p.m. in the third-place game. Before that, East, which beat Fresno-Washington Union, will play for fifth place against Frontier, a winner against El Segundo. Mira Monte and West will meet for the consolation championship.
Most CommentedMost Popular
A forceful Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood announced at a tense press conference Thursday that David Sal Silva, whose death earlier this month raised questions about use of force by deputies, died as a result of hypertensive heart disease and was not only intoxicated but had methamphetamine...
The death of a man in custody following a prolonged struggle with Kern County Sheriff's deputies and CHP officers and the subsequent fracas over confiscated witness cellphones have gained international attention and raised concerns here that the incidents could tarnish the county's emerging...
The Kern County Sheriff's Office is out of control. That's one conclusion many people will draw based on the events of the past two weeks and in the context of recent years.
A draft city ordinance that would have restricted abortion in Bakersfield was placed on hold Monday when the Bakersfield City Council's Legislative and Litigation Committee voted 3-0 to table its discussion indefinitely, and instead, ordered the drafting of a resolution that could be less...
Blood stains are still visible on the sidewalk at the corner of Flower Street and Palm Drive, where a Bakersfield man struggled with as many as nine officers and later died this week.
A forceful Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood announced at a tense press conference Thursday that David Sal Silva, whose death earlier this month raised questions about use of force by deputies, died as a result of hypertensive heart disease and was not only intoxicated but had methamphetamine and other drugs in his system at the time of his death.
Classes were canceled at Bakersfield High School Monday after three small bottle bomb explosions struck campus, authorities said.
David Sal Silva’s screams seem like they will never stop.