Merced boys pull away for rivalry win over GV

It’s been a rough year for everyone involved in the Golden Valley boys basketball program.

Cougars coach Keith Hunter has kind of been the gold standard for program stability in the Central California Conference, finishing above .500 in league play in 10 of the last 11 seasons. And finishing right at .500 in the 11th one.

It’s made the first last-place finish of his tenure all the more humbling. Still, the Cougars had an opportunity to alleviate some of the sting if they could avoid a winless league campaign with a victory over crosstown rival Merced at Cougar Arena on Thursday night. GV couldn’t quite pull off the feat, fading in the fourth quarter of the Bears’ 61-52 victory, but Hunter was pleased his team went down swinging.

“We played hard tonight,” said Hunter, whose team finished 3-24 overall and 0-10 in the CCC. “Merced pulled away in the end, but we never folded. That’s not something I’ve been able to say in some of our recent games, so I was very pleased with the effort.

“(A.J.) Stewart is a special player and that (Jared) Pazin kid hit some big shots. Sometimes you can know that you gave it your all and the other team was just better that night. I feel like that’s what happened tonight.”

The Cougars were right where they wanted to be through three quarters, trailing Merced just 47-44 after erasing an early 13-points deficit. GV did it with defense, forcing 12 Merced turnovers in the middle quarters to storm its way back into the game.

It was the Cougars that got a little sloppy in crunch time, however. After yielding just five total turnovers in the second and third quarters combined, the Cougars coughed the ball up six times in the fourth.

Merced (14-12, 5-5 CCC) took full advantage, turning the turnovers into easy transition buckets to quickly push the lead back to double digits. A Pazin 3 made it 57-47 with 5:57 to play. Golden Valley never threatened again.

“When our defense sets up, we’re a pretty sound team,” Merced coach Hector Nava said. “We were turning the ball over and allowing them to execute in transition against us. Once we started holding onto the ball in the fourth quarter, they had a much tougher time executing against us.”

Merced looked like it might run Golden Valley out of its own building to open the game. Stewart (20 points) and Pazin got off to hot starts, combining for 17 points in the opening quarter as Merced built a 19-6 lead. It was the start of a monster night for Pazin, who gave the CCC a taste of what they can expect in his senior campaign next year, as he scored a career-high 27.

Golden Valley went down 23-6 before it got going.

David Pelayo led the charge off of the bench. The senior buried a couple quick 3s en route to eight second-quarter points. Devon Martinez (nine points) and Cyrus Allen (10) followed suit, each scoring seven in the second quarter as GV trimmed the lead to 32-30 at intermission.

Pelayo (team-high 19 points) and Pazin stayed hot in the third quarters, exchanging shot for shot as neither team was able to get control of the game. All that changed in the first two-plus minutes of the fourth quarter as the Bears broke the game open with a quick 10-3 run.

“Coach told us at halftime if we could just keep our composure we’d win the game,” Pazin. “We put some of our younger guys in that weren’t used to the rivalry environment and they struggled a little bit. We recomposed in the fourth quarter and did a much better job taking care of the ball.”

This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Merced boys pull away for rivalry win over GV."