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Saturday, Feb. 06, 2010

Merced defends home turf

Atwater had itself in perfect position.

A Nathan Sanchez reverse layup cut Merced's lead to 60-58 with just under four minutes to play in the fourth quarter on Friday night.

It capped a 9-2 run and brought the Atwater crowd back to life.

That's when Merced found another gear.

Center Brian Cooksey scored an easy bucket inside and Reggie Nelson followed with a steal and a quick pass to Otis Caery for a layup.

Atwater coach John Kane tried to slow the momentum with a quick timeout, but it was too late.

Atwater turned the ball over on its next two possessions and Jaquari People cashed them in with a couple transition layups to build Merced's lead back to double digits.

Merced never looked back in an 80-67 victory over Atwater.

"It's a little frustrating that we couldn't play with that kind of intensity for the whole game," Merced coach Marcus Knott said. "I suppose if you're going to turn it on like that, the fourth quarter of a close game is a good time to do it."

Merced (8-1 Central California Conference, 20-4) flirted with breaking the game open a number of times, but Atwater (3-6, 9-13) managed to answer.

Point guard Eriq Belt turned in when Kane called one of his toughest performances of the season, scoring 14 of his team-high 25 points in the first half.

Unfortunately for Atwater, Cooksey was just a little bit better.

After back-to-back games against two of the bigger frontcourts in the CCC, Cooksey took advantage of a smaller Atwater squad.

Showing the aggressiveness Knott's been looking for, Cooksey scored 19 of his game-high 29 points in the first half to help Merced take a 38-33 lead into intermission.

"This wasn't a very good performance by Merced basketball," Cooksey said. "We know that whoever we play is going to give us their best effort and we weren't ready to play tonight.

"We almost learned the hard way."

Merced pushed its lead to eight heading into the fourth quarter, but Atwater had one more run left.

Belt got things going with a steal and a layup and Amir Tumbling followed with a transition 3-pointer.

Cooksey and Sanchez each exchanged a pair of buckets making it a two-point game at just under the 4-minute mark.

Merced rallied, hitting 14 of 20 free throws in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

"We just picked the wrong time in the game to force a couple plays and forget to box out," Kane said. "Before we knew it the lead was 10 again and we were out of it."

Nelson finished with 15 points and six steals for Merced while Giovanni Dalmaso added 15 for Atwater.