Short-handed Merced blown out by Liberty Ranch in Columbia tourney final

With the clock ticking down at the end of the first half Wednesday night, Merced’s Isaiah Aguirre launched a 25-foot shot that swished through the net as the buzzer sounded.

It was one of the few highlights for the short-handed Bears, who were on the wrong end of a 66-19 rout at the hands of Liberty Ranch of Galt in the championship game of Columbia College Holiday Classic.

Merced suited up five players against the Hawks after the fallout from Tuesday night’s 58-54 win over Sonora, which ended after Bears star A.J. Stewart was involved in an altercation with a Sonora fan.

During the fight, Merced’s players left the bench, which results in a one-game suspension, according to Sac-Joaquin Section rules. That left Merced (7-7) with four eligible players Wednesday. Bears coach Hector Nava called up Isaiah Spicer from the freshman team to give Merced five bodies.

“This reminded me of summer ball, but even then, we didn’t lose by 40,” Nava said. “Some of the kids got to understand what basketball is about – how to make basketball plays, how to make a short pass and a sharp cut, how to put the ball in the hole.

“I’ve got to give credit to Isaiah, our freshman, for coming up with us. Our (junior varsity) team only has six players, so I didn’t want to mess with them.”

Nava planned to make the trip without Stewart for safety reasons after the brawl. Stewart wouldn’t have been eligible to play anyway because he was ejected after the fight, and an ejection results in a one-game suspension.

With only five players, Merced struggled from the start, as the Hawks sprinted out to a 30-0 lead with 4:40 left in the second quarter.

That’s when Liberty Ranch coach Josh Williams called off the full-court press, which helped force Merced into 16 first-half turnovers.

“I think it took a toll on us mentally,” said Aguirre, who led the Bears with 10 points. “We came in knowing we didn’t have subs, and it might have forced us to hold back and conserve our energy.”

Isaiah Halsey paced the Hawks (13-0) with 26 points. Chandler Garcia scored 13 points.

Mitchell Cobb finished with six points and five blocks for the Bears.

Stewart’s altercation with a Sonora fan came in the final minute of Tuesday night’s game with Merced leading Sonora 58-54.

As the referees were sorting out a double-technical foul after pushing and shoving between players from Merced and Sonora, Stewart started walking toward a fan, who had been heckling him for most of the game. The fan came onto the court, and punches were thrown. The two wrestled to the ground before they were separated.

Nava hopes the past couple days can serve as a learning experience for the players and coaches.

“Absolutely, if we can’t learn from this, what can we learn from? I told our guys sometimes life isn’t fair,” Nava said. “I have some great basketball players who didn’t play today who didn’t do anything wrong. Just because they were on the bench they couldn’t play.”

El Capitan 60, Summerville 54 – Isaiah Knott was named to the all-tournament team after scoring 22 points to lead the Gauchos to the Columbia consolation championship. James Sellers scored 31 for El Capitan.

James Lick 60, Golden Valley 56 – The Cougars went 0-3 in the tournament despite Collin Hayes’ 19 points. Golden Valley’s Cyrus Allen scored 16 points.

Girls basketball

Bingham (Utah) 53, Golden Valley 42 in San Diego – The Cougars (10-4) dropped the third-place game of the SoCal Holiday Prep Classic despite 24 points from Stephanie Moore, who was named to the all-tourney team after averaging 25.5 points in four games.

This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 7:58 PM with the headline "Short-handed Merced blown out by Liberty Ranch in Columbia tourney final."