Woodside defeated host Sequoia 43-41 Friday night in a heated rivalry game where previous records and standings no longer seemed to matter. Both sides were packed with students wearing either orange or purple to witness a scrappy defensive battle that went down to the final seconds.
“I think that having the crowd, loud, and cheering, for every play [was huge],” Woodside head coach Doug Fountain said. “That is basketball. That is how we like to play.”
After back and forth baskets in the second half, Woodside led by as many as seven with six minutes to go. Sequoia got the lead down to two with four minutes left in the game when Woodside’s Ryan Yedinak connected, increasing the Wildcat lead to four.
The next three minutes passed by without baskets from either team. After Sequoia’s Tommy Lopiparo took an offensive charge to give the Cherokees back the ball and then toed the free throw line at the other end without luck, missed threes greeted the Wildcats at the other end.
The missing continued when Ryan Blocker was off the mark with his first one-and-one free throw attempt with 12 seconds to play. The Cherokees took the rebound and passed it down court. A last-second jumper fired by Jarrett Crowell was no good, giving the Wildcats the win in dramatic fashion right at the buzzer.
The Woodside victory was due in no small part to senior captain Mitchell Hickman who scored 17 points, 10 of which were in the second half.
“We played well,” Hickman said. “[But] there are a couple of things we could have done better. We could have made free throws, we missed a bunch of shots, but a win’s a win.”
Woodside (7-9, 1-3 PAL-South) takes on San Mateo next at home while Sequoia (7-12, 2-2) hosts Capachino on Wednesday. Both teams, however, can’t wait to get a crack at one another once again. The two meet for the second time February 6, this time at Woodside.
“The great thing about it is that Sequoia gets to come to our place and we get to play them again,” Fountain said. “I love playing Sequoia.”
