‘We felt we were the underdogs.’ Merced boys upset Atwater, keep postseason hopes alive.
The Merced High boys basketball team felt they let a game get away from them against Patterson on Monday. The Bears weren’t going to let it happen twice in a week.
Merced kept its postseason hopes alive with a spirited effort in a 63-45 win over Atwater on Wednesday night on Vince Clemons Court in the new Merced High gym.
“This time we played with a chip on our shoulder,” said Bears senior Jaylen Thao-Booth, who scored a game-high 20 points. “We felt we were the underdogs and everybody was against us, coming off a tough loss. We gave one up against Patterson.”
The Bears (14-10 overall, 5-3 Central California Conference) played as if their playoff hopes were on the line. They dominated on the boards against a Falcons team playing without a starting forward in Cameron Frazier, who was out with an illness.
“It was one of our better rebounding games this season,” said Merced coach Adrian Sanchez. “That was part of what we wanted to do. We knew we had to take care of the ball and we wanted to send five guys to go in and rebound. That was the plan and our guys executed it.”
The Bears had plenty of second-chance opportunities in the first half, but couldn’t convert as Merced trailed 27-24 at the half.
The shots started falling in the second half for the Bears.
Thao-Booth scored 13 of his 20 points in the second half. Seth Mays-Meneley also hit some key second-half shots and finished with 17 points.
Merced outscored Atwater (15-7, 6-3 CCC) 22 to 8 in the third quarter to open up a 46-35 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
The Falcons couldn’t get going on offense.
Junior Colton Dukes, who recently surpassed 1,000 career points, led the Falcons with 17 points. KJ Ross and Tyler Parr both scored 10 points for the Falcons.
“Dukes went off the first time we played Atwater,” Sanchez said. “We just tried to stay with him tonight and make him make difficult shots. Our guys did a good job.”
Both teams are in the thick of the playoff hunt with the Falcons sitting in second place behind El Capitan (8-1 CCC) and Merced a half-game back in third place.
“Our goal has been to make the playoffs all season,” Thao-Booth said. “We just have to win. That’s the only way we can get there. We have to take it one game at a time and play hard for 32 minutes each game.”
