Bears beat Bullfrogs in final seconds

With under 10 seconds to play on Friday night in Angels Camp, Summerville forward Tommy Pierce leaped as high as his 6-foot frame could take him, and clutched the basketball. The score was Bret Harte 46, Summerville 45.

Of his defensive rebound, Pierce said, “It hit off a couple of people’s heads, but I followed it.”

Meanwhile, the clock ticked: 9 seconds, 8 seconds ...
   

“During the final timeout (with 10.6 seconds left and Bret Harte on the free throw line for a one-and-one),” said Pierce, “Coach (Ben) Watson had said in the huddle, ‘After the rebound, do not try any long passes.’ He didn’t want any interceptions. So I threw it shorter (20 feet) to Jared (English).”

The 5-foot-9 English advanced the ball close to half court.

7 seconds ... 6 seconds ...

English flicked the ball to 6-3 guard Zach Roberson.

“At that point,” said Bears’ 6-3 forward Jordan Sooter, “I was thinking that we’d be running a screen for Zach — because he’s our best shooter. But then Zach gave the ball back to Jared.”

5 seconds ... 4 seconds ...

“I was able to get wide from Roberson pretty quickly and he could see I was open,” said English. “So Zach gave me the ball, I saw a little hole, and drove in fast.”

The lefty English, a dead-eye shooter, was all alone just seven feet from the Bullfrog bucket.

“I was wide open for a short shot from the right side,” said English. “But (Bullfrog 6-4 forward) Robby Bragg has good instincts, made the right move, and came up to challenge me.”

3 seconds ... 2 seconds ...

“English is too good of a shooter,” said Bragg. “We couldn’t leave him open.”

From the top of the key, Sooter made a straight-forward dash down the lane. English dished a shovel pass to Sooter inside the paint, seven feet from the bucket.

“Once I caught the ball,” said Sooter, “I was thinking, ‘I’ve got to come up with a good shot, the clock is running low, put it up, and hope for the best.’ ”

From five feet away, Sooter took a running one-handed jumper that kissed off the glass and fell directly through the rim.

Summerville had the lead, there was .8 of a second left when Bret Harte received timeout.

A final Hail Mary pass from the Bullfrogs was tipped away by Roberson, and Summerville left the gym 47-46 winners.

“This shot, definitely, ranks at the top ever for me,” said Sooter, who ended the night with six points. “To have a buzzer-beating game winner ... it doesn’t get any better than that. I just didn’t want to let the team down. I was a little nervous that Coach had put me in at that final timeout with just 10 seconds left. I didn’t feel I had played that great of a game to that point.”

“I wanted us to be able to get the rebound in case we missed our shot,” explained Watson. “So by putting in Sooter at the last timeout, I went with a little bit more height.”

During the timeout with 10.6 seconds left, inside the Bear huddle, said English, “We all felt calm. We could feel that Coach had confidence in us. He told us to do our own thing. We could feel that he trusted us to execute down the stretch.”

“Coach summed it up for us in the easiest way possible,” said Roberson. “It was, pretty much, straight to the point: Get the rebound, advance the ball quickly, run our offense and score a basket.”

“You’ve got to trust your guys,” said Watson. “At that point in a game, you just have to trust that they’ll do the things you work on every day in practice, and execute our offense.”

“It’s a tough loss for us,” said Bret Harte guard Joseph Chimente, who had three steals. “We felt we should have won. We had such a great, loud crowd behind us all night. But we’re getting better as a team.”

Defensively, Bret Harte was superb. Even above the rabid, non-stop roaring from the Bullfrog faithful, the perpetual sound of squeaking gym shoes — a sure sign of aggressive ballplayers moving their feet on the defensive end — emitted from the Bret Harte gym.

The Frogs had 13 steals, compared to two for Summerville.

“We kept battling,” said Bret Harte head coach Jerry Rucker. “There were times we couldn’t get going offensively, but we stayed in the ballgame with our hustle. I also thought we did a decent job rebounding, considering our size verse theirs.

“Wire-to-wire, it was close all the way, and it’s a tough one to lose. We had our chance and we couldn’t put it away. We couldn’t finish it up.”

“Both teams played their hearts out tonight,” said Watson. “This game obviously could have gone either way. We got fortunate at the end that the ball bounced our way. But both teams kept fighting.”

Late in the first quarter, Summerville 6-5 forward Tige Wingo grabbed an offensive board, canned the layin, got fouled, hit the free throw and the Bears took a 13-12 lead into the second stanza. (Wingo ended the contest with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.)

Bragg swished a 22-footer with 1:26 left in the second quarter, and the score was 22-22 at halftime.

Led by four Roberson third-quarter field goals, Summerville (2-3 Mother Lode League, 7-13 overall) took a 36-34 lead into the final frame.

“Zach was huge for us,” said Watson. “There was a stretch there where we weren’t otherwise going well, and he picked up the slack.”

Roberson had a game-high 16 points and six rebounds. English had a game-high three assists, and Pierce grabbed eight boards.

After Bears 5-8 guard Taylor Gold and Roberson each canned a trey, the Bears held a 42-34 lead with 6:35 left to play.

Then Bret Harte 6-0 forward Martin De Anda scored eight consecutive points in the ensuing two minutes and the game was tied.

De Anda had a team-high 14 points. Also for the Bullfrogs, 5-9 guard Matt Brechtel scored 12, Bragg 10 and 6-foot forward Jackson Gates had six. De Anda and Brechtel each had three steals.

Up 44-43 with 34 seconds left in the contest, Bragg converted a layin after a bold 15-foot baseline move, dodging two defenders.

Bret Harte (1-4 MLL, 8-13) led 46-43, when Wingo canned a 16-foot turnaround jumper with 22 seconds left. The Bears fouled Bret Harte with 10.7 seconds to play, which set up Sooter’s gallant, game-winning goal.

“That final play by Sooter happened so fast,” said Wingo. “I just closed in on the other side to go for the tip in case we needed it. But there was no need — he hit it.”