COS sweeps West Hills Lemoore in basketball
The College of the Sequoias men's basketball team spread the wealth while maintaining its percentage points lead atop the Central Valley Conference.
The Giants made a season-best 32 assists, including a game-leading nine from Seth Dawson (Antioch), while rolling to an 89-72 victory over West Hills-Lemoore on Jan. 26 at Porter Field House.
Sequoias ranked No. 8 in the California Community College Men's Basketball Coaches Association and led the CVC at 5-1. The Giants are 16-4 overall.
State No. 3 Columbia (18-1) is second in the conference standings at 4-1.
"We have a lot of playmakers on the floor," said Dawson, who also contributed seven points and six rebounds. "I think we trust each other enough just to play basketball."
Sequoias pulled away in the second half while shooting 52.8 percent (19 of 36) from the field and 46.7 percent (7 of 15) on 3-pointers.
"I think we came out pretty slow tonight," Dawson said. "But in the second half, we pulled it together and started improving our pace and getting some stops."
Ryan Johnson (Hanford High) scored a season-high 32 points to go along with nine rebounds, three blocks, two assists, and a steal as the Giants won their third straight game.
"We're making a lot of improvements," Johnson said. "We've just got to keep moving the ball, hustling and doing all that good stuff, and everything else will fall into place.
"We had great teamwork tonight. Everyone is a pass-first kind of person. If we keep doing that the rest of the year, I think we'll be pretty solid."
Scott Ator (Texas) added 23 points, seven assists, two steals, a rebound, and a block for Sequoias.
The Giants also received eight points, 10 rebounds, three assists and a steal from Terri Miller (Clovis North); seven points, two rebounds and two assists from Andre Treadwell (Sacramento); six points, four rebounds, three assists, and a block from Bryce Fitzgerald (Las Vegas); and three points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals from Conner Jackson (Dublin).
Sequoias will resume chase of the CVC title and a favorable seeding in the Northern California Regional playoffs when it hosts West Hills-Coalinga (6-11, 1-2) at 3 p.m. Jan. 29. The Giants will host reigning conference champion and state No. 28 Fresno City (9-6, 3-1) at 5 p.m. Feb. 2.
"I feel we have the best team depth-wise one through 12," Dawson said. "I'm really excited about the rest of the year."
Unranked West Hills-Lemoore (7-10, 1-5) kept the game close most of the way behind Mack Tarver Jr., who sank seven 3-pointers en route to a game-leading 33 points. Milton Burnett, who played for Sequoias in 2019-2020, added 13 points, three rebounds, and three assists for the Eagles.
Women's basketball
The College of the Sequoias women's basketball team has tightened the Central Valley Conference title chase.
Behind a career-high 29 points from Sapphire Jones (Hanford High), the state No. 11-ranked Giants dropped No. 16 West Hills-Lemoore from the unbeaten ranks in conference play with an 83-76 victory on Jan. 26 at Porter Field House.
Sequoias (13-5 overall) pulled into a three-way tie for second place in the CVC with West Hills-Lemoore (13-6) and state No. 2 Fresno City (17-2) at 3-1. Merced (9-7), which had its first three CVC games postponed because of Covid-19 precautions, leads the conference standings at 1-0.
The Giants are set to face Fresno City and Merced next week, hosting the Rams at 7 p.m. Feb. 2 and traveling to meet the Blue Devils at 5 p.m. Feb. 5.
Jones scored 11 points in the game's first 9 minutes as Sequoias stormed out to a 15-point lead (23-8) against West Hills-Lemoore, which entered atop the conference standings.
The Eagles clawed back into it by outscoring the Giants 22-10 in the second quarter.
The lead changed hands eight times in the second half before a layup by Ayon Carter (Oakland) put Sequoias ahead for good at 73-71 with 2:36 left.
With the Giants clinging to a two-point lead (75-73) with 1:26 remaining, Jones scored five points the rest of the way to help secure the victory.
"Thankfully, we won," Sequoias coach Ray Alvarado said. "But win or lose, this game helped us more than a game where we had a blowout win because we had to put some stress pressure on ourselves, kind of get ready for bigger games and a playoff run and all that stuff."
Alvarado said he was pleased with a Giants' defense that forced 29 turnovers and an offense that converted 24 of 37 free-throw attempts after drawing 28 fouls. Jones went 8 of 14 from the free-throw line, while Nikola Hudson (Florida) was 8 of 8.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game," Alvarado said. "We were trying to do some different things defensively, and it helped us. It looked ugly at times, but we wanted to try and establish the tempo and get some turnovers, which we did. Then our goal was to get to the free-throw line, and we did that. We kind of forced the issue. I was proud of their effort."
Jones also contributed six rebounds and three steals.
Celeste Lewis (Sierra Pacific-Hanford) had 21 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals, and three blocks for the Giants.
Sequoias also received eight points, three rebounds, an assist, and a steal from Dyaneli Diaz (McFarland); seven rebounds, five assists, and two steals from Serena Ybarra (Coalinga).
The Giants were scheduled to host Taft at 5 p.m. on Jan 29, but the game was canceled after the Cougars were forced to suspend their season because of a lack of players.
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This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: COS sweeps West Hills Lemoore in basketball
