Contreras, Le Grand hold off Waterford

Francisco Contreras wasn’t going to let a few missed shots discourage him from taking another in a key moment against Waterford on Friday night.

The Le Grand senior drained a three-pointer to give the Bulldogs a five-point lead with 1:18 left as Le Grand held off Waterford 51-46 to keep its slim playoff hopes alive.

“When the shots aren’t falling, you have to ask yourself if you should keep shooting or give someone else a shot,” Contreras said. “I was open and coach tells us if you’re open, shoot it. I took the shot and made it.”

After Contreras’ trey, Sergio Gomez made 3 of 4 free throws in the final 22 seconds to seal the win. The Bulldogs finished the regular season at 8-12 overall and 6-6 in the Southern League.

Now, Le Grand has to wait to see if it makes the playoffs. The Bulldogs need Gustine to lose its final two games, according to coach Adrian Sanchez. (Gustine’s score against Denair on Friday night wasn’t available at press time). The Redskins close the season Tuesday at Waterford (2-20, 1-10).

“It’s hard when you don’t control your own destiny,” Sanchez said. “That overtime loss earlier in the season at Gustine hurts us right now, but that loss helped shape this team.”

It was the Le Grand second unit that gave the Bulldogs a boost in the second quarter. A lineup that had Gomez and four reserves – Fernando Aguilar, Rigo Mares, Brian Moreno and Mario Ybarra – went on a 16-4 run to open a 30-11 lead with 3:01 left in the first half.

Moreno started the rally with a drive to the basket and a three-pointer. Mares, who led Le Grand with 13 points, scored seven during the run.

“Throughout the year, we’ve had our struggles because we’ve had to play our starters a lot of minutes,” Sanchez said. “Our second unit did a great job in that second quarter. They really had a great week of practice. We keep score of our games in practice, and they won some of those games against the starters.”

Waterford battled back with an 11-0 run itself and went into the half trailing 32-22.

The Wildcats then opened the third quarter with eight consecutive points to cut the deficit to 32-30 with 4:19 left. Devin Barber caught fire in the second quarter with 10 of his game-high 23 points.

The Waterford 1-2-2 zone turned Le Grand into a team content to exclusively launch shots from beyond the arc, and those shots weren’t falling. The Bulldogs made just 3 of 19 three-point attempts in the second half.

“This year, we’ve shot the ball better, but we lived and died by the three-pointer,” Sanchez said.

Le Grand’s poor shooting was offset by Waterford’s 29 turnovers.

When it came time to knock down the big shot, Contreras (nine points) came through.

“When it matters, we know we can hit the shot,” Contreras said.

After opening SL play with four losses, Le Grand closed the season by winning six of its final eight.

The question is, will it be enough?

“Now we wait to see what Gustine does in their two games,” Contreras said. “We really want to go to the playoffs.”

This story was originally published February 13, 2015 at 10:58 PM with the headline "Contreras, Le Grand hold off Waterford."