El Capitan wins thriller over Merced

El Capitan High coach Chris Tufts was hoping a game late in the season against Merced would help get his team ready for the playoffs.

If Friday night’s 50-49 thriller doesn’t get the Gauchos prepared for the playoffs, nothing will.

El Capitan had to sweat out an A.J. Stewart three-point attempt at the buzzer. When the shot glanced off the rim, the Gauchos’ student section exploded onto the court as Tufts and his team celebrated a hard-fought victory.

“We’ve never experienced something like this before,” Tufts said. “For us, this is new territory. I knew this was going to be the type of game that went down to the last shot.”

It was basically a de facto Merced City Championship game with both teams beating Golden Valley this season. El Capitan will join the Central California Conference next season.

“Merced’s a great team,” Gauchos point guard Isaiah Knott said. “We’ve been looking forward to this game since our last game. We knew they would be ready to play. Everybody out there knows each other and both teams wanted to win.”

The game definitely had a playoff atmosphere with a packed Stable Center.

The Bears (14-13) looked a step slow in the first quarter. Maybe it was playing one night after beating Golden Valley, but Merced struggled as El Capitan (20-6) raced out to a 9-0 lead and led 16-6 after the first quarter.

Then Stewart got hot.

The Bears senior scored 16 of his game-high 23 points in the second quarter to give Merced a 26-24 lead at intermission. Stewart hit three consecutive three-pointers during an 11-2 run to start the second quarter with Stewart scoring all 11 of Merced’s points.

Stewart and Jared Pazin combined to score all 20 of Merced’s points in the second quarter.

“We know (Stewart) is an outstanding player,” Knott said. “He’s strong, quick and he can shoot. We had to start playing out on him more and playing Jared more. We knew they were their two main guys.”

El Capitan used a more balanced offensive attack as Knott and James Sellers both finished with 13 points. Joshua Stewart and Jarod Latona each added six, and Mark Sellers scored five big points in the fourth quarter.

Mark Sellers hit a three-pointer from the right baseline to give the Gauchos a 42-35 lead with 6:52 left in the game.

After Merced cut the lead to 46-45, Mark Sellers delivered another big basket with a scoop shot in the lane to extend the lead to 48-45 with 40 seconds left.

“I challenged him in the third quarter and told him he needs to play above the rim,” Tufts said. “Those were difficult shots he made. He rose to the occasion.”

Merced was unhappy with the officiating down the stretch as multiple calls went against the Bears in the final seconds.

The first one came off a missed free throw by Merced’s Jacob Busko. A.J. Stewart missed a putback and went up for the rebound and got tied up with El Capitan’s Latona. Stewart had the ball as they went to the ground, but it was Stewart whistled for the foul.

Latona made both free throws to give El Capitan a 50-46 lead with 30 seconds left.

Pazin hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to 50-49 with 14 seconds remaining.

It appeared Knott threw the ball out of bounds on the sideline, but the referees ruled the ball was tipped by a Merced player.

“That ball was flung out of bounds,” Bears coach Hector Nava said. “That ball wasn’t tipped. That ball almost hit you guys (referring to the people sitting at the scorer’s table).”

Knott had a hard time keeping a straight face when asked if the ball was tipped after the game.

“Of course it was tipped,” he said. “It was tipped all the way.”

El Capitan almost turned over the ensuing inbound pass as the ball was thrown toward Merced’s basket with no Gaucho there. Merced’s Isaiah Aguirre raced toward the ball and slid on his knees, but he was called for traveling.

Nava felt Aguirre was pushed from behind by El Capitan’s James Sellers.

“I’m disappointed certain calls are made that (the referees) weren’t seeing,” Nava said. “That’s why we have jump balls and alternating possessions. Our guy, Isaiah, goes after a loose ball and gets pushed in the back and the ref tells me he didn’t see it. They are making calls without seeing the play.”

The Bears still had a chance to win after James Sellers missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw with 7.6 seconds left. Aguirre grabbed the rebound and passed to Stewart, who dribbled up the floor and shot a runner from just beyond the three-point arc that hit off the back rim.

“It was an awesome game, both teams played the game like it was a playoff game,” Nava said. “They competed at both ends of the floor. All you can do is hug each other after it’s over.”

This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 10:58 PM with the headline "El Capitan wins thriller over Merced."