After maintaining a solid lead the entire game but slacking near the end, the Pioneer Mustangs claimed a 37-35 win over the Mt. Pleasant Cardinals in the first round of the CCS Division II boys basketball playoffs.
Pioneer, went up nine points, 30-21, with seven minutes left, only to allow a huge Cardinal comeback as the team tied the game, 35-35, with 10 seconds left. For the first time in the game, Mt. Pleasant’s cheering section erupted.
But as point guard Dominic Barnes took the inbound, he found power forward Chris Tuner wide open at the other end and launched him the ball. Turner took the alley-oop in stride and laid it up. The ball bounced off the backboard and rolled around the rim before dropping in to give Pioneer a 37-35 lead with two seconds left.
A desperation shot by Anthony Juni failed to save Mt. Pleasant.
“I got the ball and saw the most wide-open person I’ve seen probably in my basketball career. I was a little shocked. I gave him the ball -- threw it to him,” said Barnes. “It was a bad pass but he caught it, made the athletic play and that was a game-winner.”
Turner was almost shocked as Barnes about the shot afforded him that was almost too-good-to-be-true.
“Initially, I saw a hole and how open it was, and I was just trying to get there and get the ball in, try to score and win. When the ball was rolling on the rim, I was hoping that it would go in. I was praying. It did and that was an amazing feeling.”
Despite the impressive Cardinal run at the end, Pioneer maintained a solid lead. Down 6-5 early in the game, a nice jumper by shooting guard Anthony Ortega and a huge sideline 3-point buzzer-beater by Barnes put the team up 13-6 at the end of the first quarter. Barnes went on to make another sweet three to beat the shot clock off an assist by Ortega late in the third. He had 12 points and Ortega had 11.
Pioneer led 21-12 at halftime. Neither team played particularly strong offense, shooting too many flat jumpers that bounced off the front of the rim and failing to penetrate inside the opposing defense. But the Mustangs played better defense, primarily because of dominant rebounding by post players Steve Watson and Joe Londre.
“We didn’t play for 32 minutes. We’re not going to make any tapes off of that performance offensively. But defensively I thought we rebounded the ball pretty good,” said Pioneer coach Joe Berticevich.
Added Berticevich: “We went to a 2-3 zone. I think we’re pretty good at it. There are a couple weak spots we have to clean up. One is a weak-side corner when they overload on the reversal. We’ve got to do a little better job on rotating that in the elbow.”
Up 30-21 early in the fourth quarter, Pioneer’s momentum seemed to slow with consecutive fouls by Barnes and Watson. The Cardinals took advantage of the opportunity. Shooting guard Previn Wong sank a difficult three over Barnes, and then made another rolling lay-up to add five quick points.
Guard Eric Ibana then put up a three from the left sideline. Juni then stole the ball and dished it back to Ibana, who drained another three. Juni followed up with a free-throw. The 5-foot-5 Wong drove into the post, faked and shot over two Pioneer defenders, both well over six feet. With the shot, Mt. Pleasant tied the game up.
“We started to put on a full-court press to get the tempo of the game up, create some turnovers and we were able to do that for certain periods of time. That’s what helped get us back in the game,” said Mt. Pleasant coach Ryan Komagome. “We were down by nine. They made a run to get back into the game. Credit to Pioneer, they made one extra play, and that’s the difference in the game.”
Wong finished with 13 points and Ibana had eight. Fourteen of the team’s 35 points came in the fourth quarter.
With the win, Pioneer advances to play Aragon. Coach Berticevich looks ahead with caution, remarking that if his team were to play the same way it did against Mt. Pleasant, it would probably lose.
“We have a tough one with Aragon. Very good team. We’re playing at their place. Hopefully, we can go down and compete and play a better game on both ends. We need to be able to score some points, so we’ll see.”
