Beaver Creek at the NAAA Basketball Championship

The Ranch Campus Sun hoops team officially concluded its season Friday, losing, 70-25, to a much stronger squad from Tri-City Prep in the preliminary round of the NAAA Basketball Championship tournament; and then, with just twenty minutes' rest, the Sun pulled off an unlikely victory over Prescott Valley Charter School, winning the consolation game, 53-52, in overtime!

Tri-City, who went on to win the Championship, was simply too big, too fast, and too skilled for us.  They dominated every aspect of the game.  Showing flashes of brilliance that had been evident all season long, the Sun looked good at times and fought hard throughout, but in the end the Panthers left us sprawling in defeat.  Leading scorers for Southwestern were Jimmy Mai with eight points and Tony Zhu with six.

The game for third place was another story!  After two regular season thrashings at the hands of Prescott Valley, who would have thought we'd ever be in the game?  Consider, too, that PVCS had nearly two hours of rest before the contest.  Our boys, tired and demoralized, started slowly and trailed by five points at the half.  A great defensive third period brought us even at 41-all.

By the middle of the fourth quarter, three of our boys had suffered leg cramps.  Tony literally had to be carried off the court - George Zheng, our powerful senior, doing the service all by himself!  With 38 seconds remaining in regulation, Kevin Yu, far behind the arc, sank a three-pointer to tie the game.  The Tri-City gym, packed with onlookers, most of whom were rooting for us, erupted.  It was the loudest noise I'd heard in a game since my schoolboy days in the perfervid bandbox gyms of northern New York!

With 28 seconds left in the four-minute overtime period, PVCS had made a free throw and we were down by one.  Kevin drove the baseline, flipping the ball off the glass, the ball hanging agonizingly on the rim before falling off.  Foul: Shooting foul on PVCS, Kevin on the line shooting two.  Kevin, in obvious pain, looked at me, glanced down at his right calf muscle, then looked back.  I came from the bench, and the referee told me, "Whoever you substitute has to shoot the free throws."

I looked back at the bench, at three enervated boys, none nearly as skilled as Kevin.  "Kev," I said, "you gotta shoot these free throws."  Still in pain, Kevin nodded and took the ball from the referee.  He stamped his right foot hard three times, like a willful colt, as though to drive out the spasm from his leg.  Settling into his well-practiced routine, he made the first foul shot.  Tie game.  The gym went crazy again!  Then, in relative peace and quiet, Kevin Yu sank the free throw that won the game.

Officially, the Sun finished the season, 11-6 (not counting a resounding win over the faculty!), in third place in our league - a league with schools with enrollments of over two-hundred.  We total eighteen.  Of course, two more exhibition games remain to be played in California, and we look forward to those and our time visiting in San Marino!

-Coach Huber