’Cats claw for one-point victory
BRAWLEY — The Brawley Union High School boys’ basketball team held off the Santana High Sultans, 52-51, in a CIF-San Diego Section Div. III opening-round playoff game Tuesday night here.
Brawley was trailing 51-50 with 12 seconds on the shot clock when Wildcat head coach Jeff Deyo called a time out.
On the ensuing inbound play, Brawley senior Jon Zarate scored the winning basket from under the hoop to give
Once they the lead it focused us.” Jon Zarate, Brawley senior
the Wildcats the lead 5251 and Santana never got a shot off in their final possession.
Deyo’s time out play was, according to the coach, “nothing special.”
“That is our inbound play … the same one we run every game,” Deyo said. “And they had seen it the whole game and they just fell asleep.”
Zarate meanwhile was the first option and was ready.
“I expect to get the ball and I worked hard to get it,” Zarate said. “I scored on that play in the first half and I saw the player who was supposed to guard me sag one way, so I spun the other way and they seemed to lose track of me.”
The seventh-seeded Wildcats led by as many as 12 points over the 10th-seeded Sultans in the first half that featured turnover after turnover with both teams pressing full court en route to a 27-19 lead.
The second half, and specifically the third quarter, belonged to the Sultans who overtook the Wildcats to lead, 37-34.
“In the third quarter they took advantage of every mistake we made and we weren’t playing smart,” Zarate said. “Once they got the lead it focused us.”
The fourth quarter featured no fewer than 13 lead changes and no team ever lead by more than two points.
“The pace was pretty hectic, especially in the third quarter and we are basically a six-man rotation and we got tired and sloppy,” said Brawley senior Austin Brewer. “Then in the fourth quarter it turned into a possession game and that’s not what we want to do either.”
Brewer, who struggled early in the game at the free throw line, hit five of six attempts from the charity stripe to keep the Wildcats close late in the game.
“They were using a new basketball for the playoffs and I didn’t get used to the feel of it until the fourth quarter,” said Brewer, who lead the Wildcats with 17 points.
The ball bothered most of the Wildcats as they normally ring-up a number of three-point baskets but managed just two against the Sultans, including one by Jose Cristerna and the other by Zarate, who ended the game with 14 points.
Brawley (19-9, 4-2 IVL) will now host University City in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Friday night, as the 15-seeded Centurions upset second-seeded Rancho Buena Vista on Tuesday.