‘Moment of silence’ helps Golden Valley girls beat Buhach Colony

The Golden Valley High girls basketball team remained in the locker room long after its coaches returned to the Thunder Dome court for the second half Thursday night.

After one of their poorer halves in recent memory, the Cougar captains held the team back for a breather.

“We kind of just had a moment of silence to clear our heads and get focused on what we have to do,” senior guard Camille Flores said. “It’s something our strength and conditioning coach taught us. We usually do it before the game, but we obviously didn’t do it well enough.”

The regrouping seemed to do the trick. Golden Valley held Buhach Colony to just six baskets in the second half, including a decisive two-point fourth quarter, as they rallied for a 50-41 road victory.

The win, coupled with a Merced loss, assured the Cougars at least a share of their first Central California Conference title since 2006. A win in any of their final three league games will give them the outright crown.

“We talked at halftime about what had us down a point at halftime,” GV coach Matt Thissen said. “We were getting beaten to loose balls. We weren’t moving our feet defensively and we weren’t boxing out. We reminded them what had gotten us to this point, and the kids really responded.”

Buhach Colony (12-9, 4-3 CCC) used its quickness and tenacity to slow down the league’s top-scoring offense for most of the evening, but things began to change when Raiajua Slaton (eight points) was forced to the bench with four fouls less than two minutes into the second half.

GV (18-3, 6-0) responded with an 8-2 run as Flores (team-high 11 points) hit a 3-pointer and a jumper in back-to-back possessions to give the Cougars a 37-34 lead.

BC got it tied at 39-39 at the end of three quarters, but Thissen’s squad would never trail again. Stephanie Moore (11 points) had two nice drives to open the fourth quarter as GV scored the first nine points.

A Thunder offense that had run so effectively through Barbara Coward (game-high 14 points, seven rebounds) in the post for three quarters suddenly couldn’t get the ball inside. With that taken away, Buhach couldn’t knock anything down from the outside, shooting just 1 of 10 in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t feel like we were sharp enough to win tonight,” BC coach Shane Gentry said. “The desire was there. The girls were ready to get after it. We just weren’t clean enough to beat a good GV team.”

Turlock 52, Merced 50 (OT) in Turlock – Faith Pattee scored with four seconds left in overtime to lift the Bulldogs to an upset over the Bears, who lost their third consecutive game.

Caitlyn Duval (21 points) hit a pair of free throws for Turlock to send the game to overtime. Symone Gilliam led Merced (11-10, 4-3) with 12 points.

Pitman 43, Atwater 38 in Turlock – The Falcons’ playoff hopes took a hit as the Pride won their first CCC game.

This story was originally published January 29, 2015 at 10:56 PM with the headline "‘Moment of silence’ helps Golden Valley girls beat Buhach Colony."