Vanden closes strong to knock off Golden Valley in semifinals
For three and a half quarters the Golden Valley High boys basketball team went toe-to-toe with top seed Vanden. The Cougars even looked the better team at times.
However, the Vikings (25-6) seemed to find an extra gear late in the game.
Vanden outscored the No. 5 seed Cougars 23 to 11 in the final 6 minutes and 24 seconds to defeat Golden Valley 68-59 in the Sac-Joaquin Division III semifinals on Tuesday night at Cougar Arena.
Vanden will face. No. 2 Central Catholic in Friday’s section tile game at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento at 4 p.m. Golden Valley (24-7) will be off until the start of the NorCal playoffs next week.
“Film doesn’t do that team justice as far as how hard (Golden Valley) plays and how physical they are,” said Vanden coach Michael Holloway. “They attack the rim and they do a lot of kick outs for threes. We were able to take away the drive and help on the threes. We limited their second-chance points in the fourth quarter too.”
Golden Valley assistant coach Derrick Jacobs felt the momentum shifted on one play.
A dunk by Vanden’s Takai-Emerson Hardy on an inbound pass that gave the Vikings a 49-48 lead with 5:48 left in the game.
“That damn dunk,” Jacob said. “That’s how they play. We were able to take away everything they like to do. Then that dunk killed us.”
The dunk came during a 9-0 run by the Vikings as they seized control.
Golden Valley made just four shots from the floor in the fourth quarter as the Vikings tightened up their defense.
“We came out battling and playing hard,” said Cougars senior Aurrion Harris. “We just didn’t pull through. Our defense wasn’t there late and our shots didn’t fall.”
Harris had a monster performance with 21 points and 14 rebounds. One key stretch came in the third quarter with the Cougars leading 42-34 with just over 2 minutes left in the quarter.
Harris went to the bench for some rest and Vanden quickly scored seven straight points to cut the lead to 42-41 with 1:09 left in the third quarter.
“That’s one thing the coaches talk about is we have to give Aurrion a breather and they took advantage of it and took the momentum into the fourth quarter,” Jacobs said.
Teiano Hardee and Agjanti Miller both scored 21 points for the Vikings. Emerson Hardy added 13 points.
Christian Magallanes added 11 points and Avery Townsel scored 10 points for Golden Valley.
This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 10:27 PM.
