Golden Valley High boys miss buzzer-beater as Patterson clinches share of CCC championship
Ricardo Perez’s half-court heave fell short as did the Golden Valley High boys basketball team’s shot at earning a piece of the Central California Conference championship on Friday night.
Perez tried to deliver a miracle victory at the buzzer, but couldn’t draw rim as Patterson celebrated a 47-46 victory at Cougar Arena.
Instead if the was the Tigers (22-6, 9-3 CCC) earning a share of the CCC championship with the hard-fought road victory. Patterson tied Atwater atop the conference standings after the final regular season game.
“We’ve talked with these guys all year about grit and this game was all about grit,” said Patterson coach Dwight Jones.
The Tigers had to battle through foul trouble as their top two players David Nnaji and Amari Coley both picked up three fouls by midway through the second quarter.
It was third-year varsity player Doug Avelar making the clutch free throw to give Patterson a 47-46 lead with 4.2 seconds left.
“That was clutch,” Jones said. “We call him ‘Mr. Free Throw.’ At the end of every practice he’s the one we always call on to make a free throw. I had no double he would make it.”
Both teams battled from the start with the title at stake for the winner.
Golden Valley (19-9, 8-4 CCC) took its first lead of the game when Ricardo Perez made a pair of free throws to give the Cougars a 40-39 lead with 4:58 left in the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter was called tight and turned in to a free throw contest with both teams combining for 24 free throws in the final quarter.
Patterson made 10 of 16 shots from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter.
“Our job was to take away the gaps and our secondary defender was late,” said Golden Valley coach Derrick Jacobs. “They would split our guys. Our second guy would be late and foul.”
Despite his foul trouble, Nnaji finished with a game-high 23 points, including 15 of the Tigers’ first 16 points of the game.
Golden Valley senior Ricardo Perez scored 18 to lead the Cougars.
Golden Valley sophomore Zay Goode played strong offensively in the fourth quarter, scoring eight of his 12 points. However, it Goode committing a foul on Avelar near half court that set up the winning free throw for Patterson in the final seconds.
“This is going to sting a lot,” Jacobs said. “When I reflect back at league, nobody really beat us. They were all close games. Making free throws was our Achilles’ heel.”
The Cougars, Patterson and Atwater will find out on Saturday where they will open the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs next week.
