Buhach Colony boys can’t maintain first-quarter pace in playoff loss

The Buhach Colony High School boys basketball team opened Friday night’s playoff game as the aggressor.

The Thunder players came out attacking the basket and getting to the free-throw line.

That all changed in the second quarter. Vacaville looked like it was going through a layup line as the Bulldogs erupted for 26 points in the second quarter on their way to a 61-47 win in a Sac-Joaquin Section Division II outbracket game at Vacaville High.

The 16th-seeded Bulldogs (11-16) will travel to top seed Sacramento (25-1) on Wednesday.

“In the second quarter, we didn’t get the ball in the paint,” said Buhach Colony coach John Bliss, whose team finished 11-17. “We settled for shots instead of attacking the basket.”

Despite a 2  1/2-hour bus ride from Atwater, Buhach Colony came out with a lot of energy. The Thunder closed the first quarter with a 15-5 run to take an 18-10 lead.

The source of their motivation was back home in Atwater in Buhach Colony teacher Rich Cometta, who is going through some health problems. The school had a lunch-time rally in Cometta’s honor, with many faculty and students wearing T-shirts that read, “Rich Will Win.”

Cometta has two nephews on the basketball team in Andrew and Brandon Morris.

“Before the game, coach Bliss mentioned that it would make (Cometta’s) day if we won today,” said Andrew Morris, who finished with six points. “He said we should win it for him and that really fired us up.”

The Thunder didn’t lack effort in the second quarter, they just couldn’t make a basket. Buhach Colony made just 2 of 15 shots in the quarter as Vacaville outscored BC 26-5 to surge ahead.

The missed shots didn’t allow Buhach Colony to set up its press, and Vacaville was able to get out in transition and get easy baskets.

“I think we came out a little hesitant for whatever reason,” Vacaville coach Duane Kamman said. “We’re really good when we get out and go. I think it took us a while to figure out what kind of game it was. Once we got into a little rhythm we showed what we’re capable of.”

Marshall Tubbs,who sat out the first 30 days of the season after transferring from Vanden, sparked the Bulldogs with 12 of his 15 points in the quarter. Tubbs scored all his points in the paint, almost all on layups.

“We told them to stop relying on three-pointers,” Kamman said. “We’re a really good three-point shooting team. We have four or five guys who can stroke it. But once one guy made a layup and the next guy, we calmed down. I remember one of our guys saying the lane is opening up, we’ve got to hit it.”

The Thunder made some runs in the third second half and cut the lead to single digits in the third quarter. Buhach Colony made a few shots and that allowed the Thunder to press and twice it forced 10-second violations.

Jake Walejko made a pair of free throws and Alex Andrade scored on a steal to cut the lead to 45-38 with 36 seconds left in the third quarter.

Vacaville put the game away in the fourth quarter from the free-throw line, making 10 of 15 shots as the Bulldogs outscored BC 14-9 in the final quarter.

Tubbs and Zack Perlstein paced Vacaville with 15 points and Jordan Adams added 10.

Walejko, Pardeep Dhillion and Jaswinder Bidwal all scored seven points for Buhach Colony.

“Every game we’ve won this year we’ve taken at least two charges,” Bliss said. “We didn’t take any today. It was little things like that. But I’m proud of this group. They are really hard working. It was a good group to coach.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Buhach Colony boys can’t maintain first-quarter pace in playoff loss."