Revenge was the theme of the weekend for #6 Antelope Valley as the Marauders sought retribution against two of the teams that handed them defeats early in the season. And though it took a little longer than expected, that mission was completed when AVC edged host Canyons in overtime to win the championship game of the Cougar Holiday Classic Sunday afternoon in Santa Clarita.
Antelope Valley (14-3) avenged its first loss of the season in the first round of the tournament against #2-ranked Chaffey. But then in the final, the Marauders faced a Canyons (6-7) team that was unranked but had made an impression with a 79-74 upset that had knocked AVC into the consolation bracket of its own tournament earlier in December.
But revenge doesn't always come easily, and that was certainly the case on Sunday afternoon against the stubborn Cougars. Antelope Valley led by 9 points in the first half and 6 points at halftime, and opened a 7-point lead midway through the second half. And held a 5-point lead with under a minute to play in regulation time, only to see the Cougars rally behind a ridiculous 3-pointer by SG Antonio Rios and a little help from the Marauders, who committed two fouls in the final 6 seconds to let Canyons send the game to overtime.
Once the game went to overtime, however, AVC took control and held on for the win. SG Lucciano Gamiz gave the Marauders a lead with a 3-pointer to start the extra time, and PF Daviyon Draper scored on a putback to push the lead to 5 points. After Canyons cut the deficit to two points midway through the overtime period, Gamiz made a jumper and SF Lawrence White threw down a dunk to make it 67-61.
Still, Canyons made a late desperate rally, cutting the margin to two points on a driving lay-up by PG Roman Delgado with 8 seconds left. But PG Ismail Ali made two free throws for AVC with 7 seconds remaining, finally clinching a hard-fought victory for AVC.
Amazingly, this was actually a wire-to-wire victory for Antelope Valley, which scored the first 4 points of the game and never trailed. Canyons got within a point a couple of times in the first half and trailed by just three points at 24-21 despite committing 16 turnovers in the game's first 16-plus minutes. A Gamiz 3-pointer gave AVC a 29-21 lead in the last minute of the half. A short jumper by Delgado made it 29-23 at the break.
In the second half, Canyons stopped turning the ball over, and tied the score at 34 about 5 minutes into the half. But the Cougars never actually took a lead, and AVC took a 45-38 advantage after a 3-pointer by PG Adrian Francis midway through the second half.
But COC continued to battle, and tied the score at 49 on a pair of free throws by Delgado with 1:52 to go. Antelope Valley got a 3-point play from Ali and a steal & jam from White to make it 54-49 with 56 seconds left, seemingly clinching the win. Things looked even more bleak moments later when COC had the ball but Rios was trapped in the right corner.
But then Rios channeled his inner Kobe circa 2007 (here's a youtube video of that shot, part of Kobe's 65-point outburst vs. Portland - in case you missed it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WklKHTi15-s) and somehow made a 3-pointer as he was falling out of bounds to make it 54-52. Still, AVC seemed in control when Draper scored with 12 seconds left to make it 56-52.
Then COC rallied, with a little help from the Marauders. Delgado drove through the lane for a lay-up, but rather than just concede the basket, Ctr Zachary Hollis contested the shot and was called for the foul. The ball went in, and Delgado made the resulting free throw to make it 56-55.
AVC's White made 2 free throws to make it 58-55, but that left it a one-possession game. COC's Delgado dribbled into the frontcourt and launched what looked like a desperation 3-point try over the 6-7 Draper, and it wasn't close. But the whistle sounded before the horn, and officials determined that Draper fouled Delgado on the shot; Delgado than went to the line and made all 3 free throws - despite an AVC timeout after the first shot - to tie the score at 58 and send it to overtime.
In overtime, however, AVC scored the first 5 points and held on for that rarest of victories, the wire-to-wire overtime win. But it was also redemption, not only for Draper, who was a deserving MVP despite the foul at the end of regulation time, but for the entire AVC team, which has now avenged two of its three losses on the season. Only Saddleback remains on the AVC vengeance list now, but any revenge against the Gauchos will have to wait until the playoffs.
box score
2013 Cougar Holiday Classic
Sunday, December 29th @ College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita
Championship Game - 3 pm
Antelope Valley Marauders 71:
2-Lawrence White, SF - 2/3 fg, 2/2 ft, 2 reb, 5 ast, 1 stl, 3 pf, 6 pts
4-Lucciano Gamiz, SG - 6/8 fg, 2 stl, 4 pf, 15 pts
11-Daviyon Draper, PF - 6/12 fg, 2/4 ft, 4 reb, 2 ast, 1 blk, 4 pf, 14 pts
20-Ismail Ali, PG - 2/8 fg, 5/7 ft, 2 reb, 6 ast, 3 pf, 9 pts
32-Tajee Shaw, C - 3/3 fg, 0/1 ft, 6 reb, 3 pf, 6 pts
12-Zachary Hollis, C - 3/5 fg, 2 reb, 1 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl, 4 pf, 6 pts
24-Ryan Wright, F - 1/4 fg, 2/2 ft, 4 reb, 1 stl, 4 pts
5-Adrian Francis, G - 1/4 fg, 2/2 ft, 2 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl, 5 pts
10-Tim Johnson, G - 2/4 fg, 0/1 ft, 1 stl, 4 pts
22-Kamal Holden, F - 0 pts
1-Darren Tooke, F - 0/2 fg, 0 pts
21-Tim Gilmore, G - 1/1 fg, 1 reb, 2 pts
team rebounds: 4
Totals: 27/55 fg (.491), 13/19 ft (.684), 27 reb, 17 ast, 2 blk, 7 stl, 21 pf, 71 pts
3-pt fg (4): Gamiz 3, Francis
Turnovers (15): Francis 4, Draper 3, Gamiz 2, White, Ali, Shaw, Hollis, Gilmore, team
Canyons Cougars 69:
10-Roman Delgado, PG - 6/15 fg, 8/8 ft, 2 reb, 11 ast, 1 stl, 3 pf, 21 pts
21-Dalibor Nonkovic, PF - 8/14 fg, 2/2 ft, 6 reb, 2 pf, 18 pts
24-Antonio Rios, SG - 2/4 fg, 2/2 ft, 4 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl, 2 pf, 8 pts
34-Zach Davis, C - 4/11 fg, 3 pf, 8 pts
42-Ilya Ilyayev, SF - 1/2 fg, 4/5 ft, 8 reb, 1 blk, 4 pf, 7 pts
41-Artur Mkrtychyan, F - 1/1 fg, 2/2 ft, 2 reb, 2 ast, 1 pf, 4 pts
20-Bijon Isles, G - 1/1 fg, 2 pf, 2 pts
31-Clay Kasdorf, F - 1/2 ft, 2 reb, 2 pf, 1 pt
44-Ricardo Greaves, F - 0/1 ft, 3 reb, 1 stl, 1 pf, 0 pts
15-Broderic Smith, G - 0/1 fg, 2 reb, 0 pts
team rebounds: 3
Totals: 23/49 fg (.469), 19/22 ft (.864), 32 reb, 15 ast, 2 blk, 3 stl, 20 pf, 69 pts
3-pt fg (4): Rios 2, Delgado, Ilyayev
Turnovers (23): Ilyayev 6, Delgado 4, Nonkovic 4, Rios 2, Davis 2, Greaves 2, Isles, Kasdorf, team
Halftime Score: Antelope Valley 29, Canyons 23
End of Regulation: Tied at 58
Updated Records: Antelope Valley (#6-South, #11-Calif) 14-3, Canyons 6-7
AVC led 54-49 with less than a minute to go in regulation time.
A 3-pointer by Rios with 46 secs left, a 3-pt play by Delgado with 6 secs left and 3 FTs by Delgado with 2 secs left tied it for Canyons.
Gamiz' 3-pointer early in OT gave AVC a lead, and AVC led the rest of the way.
Draper (MVP) & White from AVC and Delgado & Nonkovic from COC were named to the All-Tournament team.
