El Capitan upsets Golden Valley in CCC showdown to pull even atop standings.
As Golden Valley senior Aurrion Harris’ last-second 3-pointer bounced off the back rim and the buzzer sounded, El Capitan boys basketball coach Adrian Hurtado raced to the corner of the court and fired off a triple fist pump.
Meanwhile, the Gauchos gathered at midcourt to celebrate with their fans who stormed the court.
El Capitan upset Golden Valley 43-40 on Monday night at the Stable Center to pull the Gauchos even with the Cougars at 6-1 atop the Central California Conference.
It was shocking considering the Cougars handed El Capitan a 23-point defeat in their first matchup.
With a packed house, this had every bit the atmosphere of a championship game.
“This is a good one.,” said Hurtado, whose team improved to 13-10 overall. “This one of the top ones here. It’s only my fourth year here, but in a pack house, on a Monday. I just want the league to give me Golden Valley on a Friday night. We’d have to turn away people.”
Hurtado said they were about 120 people shy of a sellout.
Those that packed the gym saw a Gauchos team avenge 68-45 loss in the CCC opener on Jan. 3.
They derailed a Golden Valley team that had won 18 consecutive CCC games and had steamrolled the conference this year winning by an average margin of 30 points in the first six conference games.
How good have the Cougars (16-6) been?
In preparation for Golden Valley, Hurtado was filming Golden Valley’s game at Atwater last week. He stopped with the Cougars leading the Falcons by 30 points in the second quarter.
He never showed the video footage to his team.
“Golden Valley looked good at Atwater,” Hurtado said. “I didn’t want to show that because we understand they’re a solid team. They have six or seven seniors on the team so I didn’t want to give them more fuel so I kept that one in my phone.”
Despite the Cougars’ success and the 23-point loss at Golden Valley, the Gauchos came in believing they could knock off the defending champions.
“We’re a young team. We’re a small team but that whole time we have to believe in ourselves.,” said senior Dillon Greenwood. “I don’t think anyone else in the CCC believed we can beat them. We have enough in our core group, and belief in each other that we can beat them.”
Both teams slugged it out in a defensive battle.
The Gauchos came back from a five-point deficit at the half. Greenwood led the way with 14 points.
Freshman Brody Collins added 12 points, including some big 3-pointers in the second half. Dishawn McCutchen finished with 10 points and was big on the boards for the Gauchos against the bigger Cougars.
“When we lost over there we got beat up,” Hurtado said. “A lot of young guys that was their first CCC game against a very good Golden Valley team. Right when we went into that locker room, I told these guys you guys got your butt whipped today, let’s go 5-1 and see them at our place.
“As much as we took games one by one, we take everyone serious, we had this one circled and we knew we’d be ready for them when they came back.”
Christian Magallanes led GV with nine points and Avery Townsel added eight points.
Trailing 43-40, the Cougars had two opportunities to tie the game late. Joseph Sanchez missed a 3-pointer with about 10 seconds left.
After Seth Alexander missed a free throw with just over 7 second left, Harris snatched the rebound and raced up the court. Harris got a good look at a 3-pointer at the buzzer, but it hit the back rim.
That set off a wild celebration.
Greenwood couldn’t ask for a better ending after anticipating the matchup for over a week.
“It’s all I could think about,” he said. “I couldn’t sleep last week. I couldn’t sleep last night. I’ve been waiting to get these guys back on our court the whole time. I don’t think we played all that well at their place and to beat them at our place, on a Monday night, with a soldout crowd is phenomenal.”
