Refs stop Merced game after fight; Bears will play for tourney title in Sonora

An ugly scene at the end of the Merced-Sonora high school boys basketball game forced the officials to call the game with about 25 seconds left in the fourth quarter at the Columbia College Holiday Classic.

Merced senior A.J. Stewart got into an altercation with a Sonora fan. As Stewart walked toward him, the fan came onto the court as punches were thrown and the two wrestled to the ground before they were separated.

Without the teams taking the floor, the referees had the final seconds tick off the clock with the final score: Merced 58, Sonora 54.

The Bears (7-6) will play Liberty Ranch of Galt Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. in the championship game, but they will be without Stewart.

“I’m keeping him off the floor for safety reasons,” Merced coach Hector Nava said. “He shouldn’t go back to that environment.”

Nava wasn’t sure if Stewart will face disciplinary actions from the school or be forced to sit out any other games because the altercation involved a fan coming onto the court.

“The officials didn’t give us any kind of explanation or anything,” Nava said. “They didn’t say if there were any ejections. They didn’t give an explanation on why they called the game. They just left.

“We can’t have an environment where fans or adults are coming on the court to start fights with players. These are high school players.”

The Bears played most of the first half without Stewart, who went to the bench after he picked up his second foul with 3:42 left in the first quarter and didn’t return until the start the of the third quarter.

The Wildcats weren’t able to take advantage of Stewart’s abscence, as Merced trailed by only four at halftime with Jared Pazin and Francisco Salazar combining for nine of the Bears’ 16 second-quarter points.

“We executed with some timely shots and some timely stops,” Nava said. “They did a great job to only be down four points with A.J. sitting the whole second quarter.”

Stewart scored 20 of his game-high 26 points in the second half.

Merced used an 11-0 run in the third quarter to take a 34-29 lead, but the Bears were never able to put away the Wildcats . Sonora pulled even at the end of the third quarter, and the game was tight throughout the fourth quarter.

Stewart (12) and Pazin (7) combined to score all 19 points in the fourth quarter for the Bears. Pazin finished with 15 points.

Pazin scored in the paint and was fouled to give the Bears a 50-47 lead with 2:19 remaining.

Sonora’s Damien Kress (12 points) answered with a three-point play to tie the score 50-50 with 1:54 left.

Stewart drained a three-pointer from the top of the key to give Merced a 53-50 lead with 1:30 left. He then helped ice the game by going 5 for 5 from the free-throw line.

The incident involving Stewart and the fan took place as the referees were sorting out a double technical foul after Merced’s Mitchell Cobb and Sonora’s Nate Patterson got tied up after a foul.

“I was over trying to put out one fire, trying to find out who they called the technical fouls on and sorting that out when the wrestling match happened at halfcourt,” Nava said.

El Capitan 61, James Lick 19 – The Gauchos will play for the consolation title against Summerville at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday after routing the San Jose school. Isaiah Knott led El Capitan (8-4) with 17 points.

Summerville 76, Golden Valley 60 – Collin Hayes scored 21 points in the Cougars’ loss to the Bears.

Golden Valley will play James Lick at 11 a.m. Wednesday for seventh place.

This story was originally published December 29, 2015 at 11:19 PM with the headline "Refs stop Merced game after fight; Bears will play for tourney title in Sonora."