SAN JOSE - A steal in the final seconds by Dylan Tarpening followed by a two-handed jam by Amador Nazarov just before the final buzzer caused an eruption from the Bells’ student section and sealed the deal on Bellarmine’s 51-48 win over Fremont-Oakland Wednesday night.
The Division I CCS Champion advances to play top-seeded Monte Vista Saturday night in the second round of the NorCal Playoffs on the Mustangs' home court in Danville.
“It was just to put an exclamation mark, to finish it off,” said Nazarov, who finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
The dunk came was a positive note to end on after a rocky fourth quarter, in which the Bells were outscored 20-14, but did just enough to hold on for the win.
Down 37-26 after three and having trailed by less than five points only once in the game, the Tigers turned up the heat on the Bells. Increased pressure caused many bad passes by the Bells, resulting in steal after steal by Fremont, each followed up with layups, diminishing Bellarmine’s lead. In total, the Bells committed 25 turnovers, one short of the 26 they had when the two teams met back in December.
“We started making layups. Once we stole the ball, we started making layups,” said Fremont coach Scot Alexander. “In the first half, we missed a lot of layups. Making plays and making layups in the second half, it helped us out.”
Donnell Wheat led the Tigers with 17 points, nine of which came from beyond the arc. Kaelin Mixon and Edward McGowan also contributed to the effort, adding 10 points apiece.
Bellarmine (12-16) came out of the gate on fire with an 11-0 run in the first four minutes of the first quarter. After a 10-0 run by Fremont in the late first and early second that brought the Tigers within three at the 7:36 mark of the second, coach Patrick Schneider called a timeout. Following the timeout, the Bells worked a lead back up to 27-18 at the half that they maintained for the third quarter as well.
“We just came out feeding on our teammates’ energy and putting trust in our shooters,” said Max Le, who finished with eight points, six of which were in that starting 11-0 run. “Our coaches told us to move the ball, we did, and we got the open shots.”
In addition to Le’s eight points, he had four rebounds, two assists, and three steals. Dylan Tarpening also had eight points for the Bells.
Fremont (12-15) finishes its season with a trip to the Oakland Section Division I finals and a NorCal Playoff bid under their belt. The Tigers will return six of their 10 players next season.
“I have a tough group of guys that have been waiting for this for four years,” said Alexander. “These kids are resilient and are used to going through tough situations. They’re resilient every day of their life.”
As for the Bells, Monte Vista will be the biggest test they face all year. The Mustangs (28-1) are ranked second in Prep2Prep’s Bay Area Top 25, and are the favorite in Division I to represent Northern California in the State Championship.
“They’re very good. It’s a great opportunity,” said Schneider. “We’re in their gym against a team that nobody thinks we have a chance to be around. We’re used to that in our league. We’re going to go out there, play our butts off on defense, trust each other on offense, and see if we can steal something.”
Tip off Saturday night is at 6 PM.
