Ervin’s pace leads Merced girls past Los Banos

Rob Pierce isn’t ready to give up the reigns on Amaya Ervin just yet.

The sophomore is Merced’s only true point guard, but Pierce doesn’t want to over burden her too early. The Bear coach has opted for a rotation of ball handlers early in the nonconference season instead to ease Ervin into the role. The sophomore made some solid points for both sides of the argument on Monday night in Los Banos.

Utilizing her blazing speed and excellent ball-handling skills, Ervin shredded the Tiger press time and again en route to a career-high 31 points. Dynamic as Ervin was, her youthful exuberance got the best of her at times as well. A flurry of turnovers allowed Los Banos to remain in the 71-55 Bear victory far longer than Pierce would have liked.

“It’s one of those things where all that speed is a gift and a curse,” Pierce said. “It’s a lot of fun to watch when it’s going well, but we need to learn to slow it down and shift gears when the situation calls for it. I believe as the season goes on Amaya’s going to have a better handle on when we need to push the ball and when it’s time to calm things down and take care of it.”

Neither team did a particularly good job of that in a fast-paced, yet sloppy opening quarter.

Merced’s Raelynn Blackwell (17 points) and LB’s Savannah Valenzuela had the hot hands early, exchanging a pair of baskets each to make it 4-4 2 minutes in.

The Bear (5-1) press began making an impact to close the quarter and Ervin got loose for a pair of layups in transition give Merced a 12-8 lead at the end of one.

She was just getting started.

Ervin scored 13 of the Bears’ 19 points in the third quarter to give them a 31-22 lead at intermission. She added 12 more points in the third quarter and half of her 10 assists to push Merced’s lead to 22 going to the fourth.

“My team had faith in me to use my speed and make some plays,” Ervin said. “I love running the press break and we were able to do it pretty well tonight.

“There’s definitely times where I get going a little too fast. I have to work on protecting the ball better, but I feel like I’m learning a little more every time I play.”

The whole Merced team got a little sloppy in the fourth quarter and Los Banos (3-4) threatened to make it a game behind Erika Gutierrez (team-high 13 points) and Sierra Alvarez (10). An Alvarez layup pulled the Tigers within 63-50 with 3:31 to play, but it was as close as LB would get.

“We definitely played some better defense in the fourth quarter, but it was just too big a hole to overcome,” Tigers coach Danny Crosby said. “Our press was effective at times, but we’re young and have a habit of wanting to reach instead of moving our feet. When you play an athletic team like Merced you can’t get away with that. They exploited it and it’s why they won.”

This story was originally published December 13, 2016 at 1:43 AM with the headline "Ervin’s pace leads Merced girls past Los Banos."