Merced, Atwater both defeat rivals to clinch share of CCC basketball championship
It was an all or nothing scenario for the Merced High boys basketball team on Friday night against crosstown rival Golden Valley.
A win would give the Bears a share of the Central California Conference championship and a playoff berth. A loss and Merced’s season was over.
“It put a good deal of pressure on us,” said Merced senior Seth Mays-Meneley. “We knew the circumstances.”
The Bears took care of business, holding off Golden Valley 53-49 in Cougar Arena and the players celebrated by chanting “C-C-C! C-C-C!” after the final buzzer.
Mays-Meneley did much of the heavy lifting, scoring a career-high 31 points.
“I didn’t want this to be my last game,” Mays-Meneley said.
The Bears finished the regular season tied with El Capitan and Atwater at 9-3 in the CCC to all earn a share of the conference title. Merced finished the regular season with a 17-10 record.
Atwater capped its regular season on Friday night with a 68-47 victory over crosstown rival Buhach Colony. The Falcons (18-8 overall) had to win their final three CCC games to earn their share of the championship.
Junior Colton Dukes paced Atwater with 32 points and senior Cameron Frazier added 15 points.
The Falcons had to overcome two COVID-19 pauses and the death of junior Tyler Parr’s father, Steven Parr, who was a big part of the Atwater program.
“Life hasn’t been very fair to us this season, but our response has been admirable,” said Falcons coach Kanoa Smith. “I’m proud of how these young men have responded to adversity time after time.”
While Atwater cruised to its victory over the Thunder, Merced had to sweat out the final seconds.
The Bears had opened a double-figure lead midway through the first half and the game stayed that way until Golden Valley (10-18, 5-7 CCC) made a run in the fourth quarter.
Ricardo Perez, Luis Mincey and Braden Castleton all made clutch 3-pointers to help the Cougars eventually erase a 12-point fourth quarter deficit to tie the game at 49-49 with 1:38 left in the game.
The Bears put the game away at the free throw line as Mays-Meneley hit two free throws to give Merced a 51-49 lead with 1:33 left.
An Israel Henley-Amey free throw extended the lead to 52-49 with 22 seconds remaining.
Castleton and Mateo Tangaan both had three-point attempts to tie the game for GV in the final 15 seconds, but misfired as the Bears held on for big win.
“I’m very proud of our guys,” said Merced coach Adrian Sanchez. “Our preseason was up and down. We had some good wins and tough losses. Then you start league and you think you’re starting a new chapter and we start 0-2. We’re looking at ourselves in the locker room wondering what are we doing wrong.
“Our guys stuck to the grind and stayed focus. We won one game and kind of got our confidence. After that we took off.”
Merced won nine of its final 10 games.
“This feels great,” Mays-Meneley said. “We’ve been working at this since the beginning of the season. It’s something you dream about when you’re a little kid. To see it come true is an amazing feeling.”
Both Merced and Atwater will get to add to their championship banners in their gyms. Now they get ready to begin the playoffs next week. Something the Falcons didn’t get to experience this past spring after winning a championship because there was no postseason due to the pandemic.
“That number will hang forever and nobody on this team will forget what we went through,” Smith said. “I’m really happy for our kids to get some recognition and a shot at playoffs as well. That didn’t happen last year, when we won for the first time in 43 years and Robert Smid made all state and it was almost like because it was a COVID year, it didn’t count.”
“Glad we packed some gyms and got a little love this year,” Smith added. “After everything we’ve been through, we need as much love as we can get.”
