Thursday, March 20, 2014

Another recap of Santa Rosa's victory in the JC state championship game

Here's DRinCA's game report of the Santa Rosa Junior College victory for the state championship:
For the second straight day, SG Kai Drewry scored the game-winning basket for Santa Rosa as the Bear Cubs slipped past San Bernardino Valley, 73-67, to win their first-ever state championship March 16th at Cerritos College.

Santa Rosa (24-8) saw an 8-point lead disappear in the last 2:04, but a day after Drewry scored the game-winning basket the sophomore guard did it again, slithering through the Wolverine defense for a reverse lay-up with 27.6 seconds to go, breaking a 67-all tie. And San Bernardino Valley (29-8) never scored again. SoCal Player of the Year SF Gerry Blakes missed a shot moments later and PG Davone Oliver snatched the rebound for Santa Rosa, and made two free throws with 11/.4 seconds left to make it a two-possession game. After Blakes missed another shot - a 3-point attempt - tournament MVP SF Alec Kobre grabbed the rebound and closed out the scoring with two more free throws with 2.0 seconds left.

It was the culmination of an amazing final three months for Santa Rosa and coach Craig McMillan. After going two-and-out at the Riverside tournament, which included a 64-48 loss to San Bernardino Valley, Santa Rosa's record stood at 3-6 for the season. But McMillan, relying on a 9-man rotation that featured three standout shooters, three role-playing big men and a tough-as-nails point guard from Oakland, found a way to maximize each's player's strengths and mold them together into a championship team.

Sunday afternoon, at first it looked like San Bernardino Valley might have an easy time of it once again as the Wolverines jumped out to an early 10-3 lead behind two three-pointers by the Arizona State-bound Blakes. SBVC's lead expanded to 14-6 a little later.
Head here for the remainder.

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