Prep Basketball: Oak Hills fends off Hesperia in MRL girls showdown
The Oak Hills girls basketball team inched a bit closer to claiming the Mojave River League title with a 47-44 victory over Hesperia on Friday night.
The Bulldogs kicked off the second round of league play with the competitive showdown against Hesperia. Oak Hills trailed by three points at halftime and outscored the Scorpions 15-12 in the third quarter.
The game never reached more than a two-possession lead in the second half and was tied with less than a minute to play.
With 1:48 left in the game and a one-point lead, the Bulldogs grabbed a rebound and sprinted up the court in the fast break.
Hesperia's Elizabeth Sanchez attempted to make the chase-down block on the other end of the court. Sanchez made contact in the air, twisted opposite of the direction she was running and fell hard to the floor.
The action was paused for about 30 minutes as Sanchez was down on the court. She lost feeling in her legs and had to be taken off on a stretcher.
“They're airlifting her to (a local trauma center),” Hesperia head coach Shawn Foreman said. “But I think she’ll be alright. She started to get a little bit of tingling. She's tough.”
As the action resumed, hit a free throw for a brief two-point lead before Hesperia tied the game 42-42 with free throws by Danea Clemons.
Kailey Rios then went down and hit the biggest shot of the game for the Bulldogs — a corner three with 40 seconds remaining.
Kylee Edgar was able to hit a two-pointer 20 seconds later for Hesperia to pull within a point. Hesperia quickly fouled the Bulldogs on the ensuing possession, and both free throws were missed.
But the Scorpions could not get a shot off and had to foul the Bulldogs with two seconds left in the game. Oak Hills hit one free throw to make it a three-point game and with no timeouts, Hesperia was forced to attempt a half-court buzzer-beater.
It fell short.
Foreman was proud of the way his team battled until the final whistle after seeing Sanchez suffer the scary injury.
“We played our hearts out, we played hard,” Foreman said. “We just made too many mistakes and they're a good team that you can't make many mistakes against. We’ll go back to work and start working hard to get ready to make a run for the playoffs.
Hesperia (15-5, 3-3 MRL) resumes league action against Serrano at home Wednesday, while Oak Hills (14-8, 6-0 MRL) travels to Apple Valley.
Hesperia 7 14 12 11 — 44
Oak Hills 9 9 15 14 — 47
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Prep Basketball: Oak Hills fends off Hesperia in MRL girls showdown
