Golden Valley girls deliver in the clutch
Matt Thissen dedicates more than his share of practice to crunch-time scenarios.
His Golden Valley girls basketball team routinely works on pressure free throws and last-second shot scenarios. It has shown throughout the season, with the Cougars finding ways to pull away late, including a handful of wins by five points or less.
That composure in the clutch surfaced again Thursday night at Cougar Arena as Thissen’s squad turned an overtime game into a comfortable 45-37 victory. Kayla Commons had four of her nine points in the fourth quarter, and Delia Moore (eight points) drilled six consecutive free throws to put the game out of reach.
“We work on those end-of-the-game scenarios all the time in practice,” Moore said. “We do our best to simulate pressure free throws, and we have a play called UConn that we practice for the last 10 seconds. I think it’s helped us keep calm when we’re in those situations.
“We were a little sloppy to start the fourth quarter – and really the first quarter, too. I think their defense had us a little off. We went over offenses that would be successful against them, but they play hard.”
A Turlock team fighting for its playoff life did a good job of mucking up the Cougars’ offense with its tenacity and athleticism on the defensive end. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs (13-11, 4-5 Central California Conference), Golden Valley (22-4, 9-0 CCC) is pretty good on the defensive end, as well.
Commons and Abbee Croninger (game-high 11 points) clogged up the interior, and the quick hands of Moore, Stephanie Moore (seven points) and Naomi Peterson (eight points) disrupted things around the perimeter. As a result, Turlock kept it close, but could never put together a run to get in front.
Shea Glasgow Williams had a team-high nine points for the Bulldogs, while Hope Salsig and Morgan Nunes each scored eight.
“I don’t want to call them scrappy, because that doesn’t really do a service to how hard they play,” Thissen said. “They’re not very big, but they are very active, and they don’t back down.
“They’re young, too, so I’m not looking forward to playing them the next few years.”
The win puts GV one victory away from a second consecutive undefeated CCC championship season. The loss drops Turlock back into a three-way tie with Merced and Atwater for the league’s third and final playoff spot with one game to play. The Falcons have the inside track because of tiebreakers, but a Bulldog upset of Pitman and an Atwater loss could still send Turlock through. Merced would have to knock off Golden Valley and have both Turlock and Atwater lose.
Coalinga 45, Dos Palos 42 in Dos Palos – Kayla Hall did a little of everything, scoring a team-high 24 points and adding seven rebounds and five steals, but the Broncos came up just short at home.
Grace Schofield and Teya Vincent each scored seven points in the DP (11-7, 5-2 West Sierra League) loss.
College baseball
Merced College 8, Canada 7 in Redwood City – Ryan Sanchez allowed two earned runs in five innings to earn his first win of the year, and Lawrence Anderson went 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs in his collegiate debut as the Blue Devils opened the season with a road win.
It wasn’t quite as comfortable as MC coach Chris Pedretti was hoping for, as Canada rallied for four runs in the last two innings. Brandon Adame recovered to earn his first save of the year.
College basketball
Antelope Valley 81, UC Merced 67 – Aaron Laflin continues to be a double double machine. The Bobcat freshman had a team-high 23 points and 11 rebounds, but UCM fell at home.
Reggie Nelson chipped in 12 points, and Matt Laflin finished with 10 as the Bobcats fell to 7-10 overall and 3-4 in the California Pacific Conference.
This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 11:11 PM with the headline "Golden Valley girls deliver in the clutch."