Madera South pulls away from Golden Valley in second half

Devon Martinez scored on a layup to pull the Golden Valley High boys basketball team within seven points of Madera South with over 2 minutes left in the third quarter.

The Cougars were working hard to stay within contact of a very athletic Stallions team.

The game, however, got away from Golden Valley just moments later, as Madera South (8-1) closed the quarter with nine consecutive points in the final 1:29 to extend its lead to 16 points and the Stallions cruised to a 60-51 victory at Cougar Arena on Thursday night.

“They played good defense and we couldn’t handle the ball right,” said Golden Valley junior center Cyrus Allen, who led the Cougars with 18 points and 11 rebounds. “They had more intensity than we did.”

One of the reasons there may have been some intensity lacking was the absence of Golden Valley head coach Keith Hunter, who was away from the team for personal reasons.

“We are very aware of our last play down the court,” said Cougars coach Jerry Stillahn. “When it’s a good play it gives us energy. There were two or three layups we missed at end of the third quarter and in baseball they’d say we put our dauber down. It kind of snowballs.

“That’s kind of been our problem the last few years. We hang with teams and we feel we can compete. Then we have two or three bad possessions and we start getting quiet.”

Turnovers were an issue for the Cougars (4-7) all night.

It wasn’t as if Madera South needed the help. Senior point guard Junior Segura caught fire early and made four of his six 3-pointers in the first half. He exploded for 13 of his game-high 26 points in the second quarter as the Stallions took a 32-26 lead at the half.

Hassan Bolden also added 20 points for Madera South.

“The turnovers resulted in layups and there were so many of them,” Stillahn said. “I think we had 22 turnovers and they scored 27 points off those turnovers. That’s just an obscene amount of points off of turnovers.”

The Cougars guards struggled against the Stallions’ pesky guards. Madera South’s size and length also gave the smaller Golden Valley players fits.

“I don’t know if it was because Keith wasn’t here, but it seemed like we got over half court and relaxed,” Stillahn said. “We don’t beat a press to just get the ball past half court and set up our offense. We attack. (Madera South) was athletic. They got up on us and used their forearms. They kept us off-balance. They were good at it. We struggled to get the ball in the paint.”

Allen was a one-man show for the Cougars most of the night. Silvestre Llamas did hit three of his four 3-pointers in the second half and finished with 12 points, but Allen was the only consistent offensive threat.

If the Cougars weren’t scoring in transition themselves, points were hard to come by. Golden Valley is going to have to find different ways to score in their half-court offense to compete in the Central California Conference.

“We need better spacing, we have to spread the floor,” Allen said. “We have to move the ball and feed the post more. We also have to hit the shots when we’re wide open.”

This story was originally published December 22, 2016 at 10:40 PM with the headline "Madera South pulls away from Golden Valley in second half."