South deals North first league loss in boys basketball
Jan. 25—Playing before a hostile crowd in the packed "old gym" at North High, the South boys basketball team could have folded at any number of moments Wednesday night.
When the Stars' Cole Williams tallied 12 third-quarter points, including three 3-pointers, to engineer a 17-6 run, South could have let them take the lead for the first time since the first quarter. But the Spartans held firm.
And then, after South players started to foul out and North cut the lead down to four points in the waning moments on a Williams free throw, then rebounded his miss, the Spartans again could have blown it.
Instead, senior guard Tyrone Massey snagged a key steal to prevent North from cutting the margin to one possession, then converted two free throws of his own. In fact, the Stars never scored again, and South handed them their first South Yosemite Mountain League loss of the season with a 56-48 result.
"North is an outstanding team," South coach Eddie Ramey said. "They play hard, maximum effort, and we expected that. But we always emphasize that basketball is a game of runs, ups and downs, you just have to stay poised."
It was a true team effort for South, as Ramey relied heavily on five-player substitutions throughout the game and was rewarded with strong performances from his reserves. Shane Carr led the Spartans with 12 points, including a corner 3 late in the shot clock followed by a less-conventional three-point play in transition that keyed a 10-0 fourth-quarter run. Syaun Wallace added 10 points off the bench.
North struggled to get its offense going early and was held scoreless for about the length of a quarter, as a result of turnovers caused by South's press defense, after tying the game at 9-9 midway through the first.
By the time Williams broke the drought by connecting from deep halfway through the second quarter, the Stars trailed 19-12. South was able to widen the margin even further, culminating in a clean bank shot by Leo Higuera with one second left to make it 28-15 at halftime.
The turning point came in the third quarter when Williams got the boisterous crowd involved by singlehandedly engineering a 10-2 run, culminating in a four-point play to cut South's lead to just 36-34. In another key play, however, Massey forced in a putback in the final seconds of the third quarter, impeding North's momentum.
Williams finished as by far the game's leading scorer with 19 points, but after such a strong third quarter, he was unable to find his stroke from deep in the closing moments.
He only had a chance because of strong play in the paint from teammate Nate Becerra and Spartan foul trouble. After a spinning post layup cut North's lead back to two points, Carr helped push it back to nine before a Wallace corner 3 to make it 48-36 that should have put the game away.
However, captain Jerome Nichols responded with a 3-pointer of his own, then North embarked on a 9-2 run consisting entirely of free throws and one three-point play by Becerra.
But after Massey's pivotal steal and pair of free throws to make it 54-48, Williams couldn't connect from deep and freshman Clifford Willis added two more to set the final margin at eight points.
The result moved both teams to 3-1 in SYML play, with South at 16-6 overall and North at 16-7.
"It gives tremendous confidence," Ramey said. "It shows that we can compete with anybody in the league, we just have to put together four quarters of basketball."
West, which is responsible for South's lone league loss, routed East Wednesday night to move to 3-1 at 15-7 overall, creating a cluster of three teams atop the league.
North will host those Vikings Friday night, while South has Tehachapi at home.
"We got a lot of work to do, so life moves on," Ramey said.
Reporter Henry Greenstein can be reached at 661-395-7374. Follow him on Twitter: @HenryGreenstein.
