LIBERTY RANCH’S PATTERSON BECOMES SECTION’S ALL-TIME NO. 2 SCORER
Senior’s historic nights helps Hawks secure SVC victory
GALT — Jalen Patterson had two goals he wanted to accomplish on Friday.
One was to help his Liberty Ranch High boys basketball teammates remain undefeated in Sierra Valley Conference action. Second was becoming the Sac-Joaquin Section’s No. 2 alltime leading career leading scorers.
Both goals were accomplished inside The Hawks Nest. A fast run helped erase a slow start, as Liberty Ranch raced to a 74-48 win over Rosemont.
Patterson scored a game-high 35 points. That now puts him as the section’s No. 2 all-time leading scorer among high school boys basketball players with 2,608 points. He entered the game with 2,573 points. Trinity Prep of Napa’s Jordan Franklin had the No. 2 spot at 2,590 points.
“No. 1, he’s great to coach,” said Liberty Ranch coach Brian Chavez. “He loves this game. I couldn’t be prouder of the fact that he got to do it at home. I am so happy for him.”
Becoming the No. 2 all-time leading scorer in front of the home crowd was even better for Patterson.
“I’m glad to get it at home instead of the road,” Patterson said.
DeMarcus Nelson, a Sheldon High of Sacramento graduate, is the section’s all-time top scorer at 3,462 points. For the non-math majors, Patterson would need to score at least 854 points to tie the top spot.
Team play is what put Patterson over the No. 2 mark with just under seven seconds remaining in the second quarter. Patterson sat the bench after he picked up
his second foul of the game for half of the quarter. Then he returned to the court under a minute to play Liberty Ranch (3-0 in the SVC, 11-10) held a 27-19 lead.
“We like to give him a rest at the end of each quarter,” Chavez said. “It’s a long season. It’s the 21st game and he’s played a lot of minutes. We have a long way to go.”
Taking the basketball up the court, Patterson passed the ball to sophomore guard Drew Fischer. Then Fischer fed the ball back to Patterson, who was already inside the paint. He went up for a short jumper for the bucket and put him at the No. 2 mark with 2,591 points.
“It was good,” said Patterson of the play that put him at the No. 2 mark. “It’s a blessing. A shout out to my teammates (former Liberty Ranch coach Josh) Williams, Chavez. Those guys put me in a good position to score.”
Liberty Ranch ended the quarter at 29-19.
The start of the third quarter saw Rosemont (0-3 in the SVC, 216) score most of its points from guard Amarion Wallace, who scored 13 of his team-high 27 points. Wallace scored his points from turnovers created by teammates and taking shots from inside the paint to keep the Wolverines within striking distance of the Hawks, who held a 47-38 lead.
But the fourth quarter belonged to Patterson and Liberty Ranch. First, the Hawks boxed out Wallace quite a bit, and held him to only four points.
“Defensively, we just kept the pressure up,” Chavez said. “They have a younger team, so we knew that if that would help get our offense going. We shot the ball well.”
Patterson scored 11 of his 35 points in different ways; two 3pointers, two shots from the field and a free throw. Hawk guard Max Oliver (12 points) also contributed toward the Hawks’ scoring ways, as he canned two 3pointers. Fischer scored five of his seven points in the final eight minutes of the game.
“We got like three, four stops in a row,” Patterson said.
All of that led to Liberty Ranch expanding its lead to 71-45 at 2:52 left in the game. That was also the same time that Patterson walked off the court to the sound of applause from fans. After the game, Chavez gave Patterson the game ball. Then Patterson went to take photos with family and friends.
In the first half, Liberty Ranch and Rosemont, out of Sacramento, were guilty of the turnover bug; they combined for more than a dozen turnovers. That led to a 13-13 score after the first quarter.
“We stuck with the game plan,” Chavez said. “We didn’t shoot the ball very well to start the game. But it was the right people shooting at the right spots.”
Other Liberty Ranch scorers were guard Gavin Martinez with nine points, forward Cody Smith six, forward Zachary Felix three and guard Branson McLelland and forward Javohn Schweigert each had one.
Behind Wallace in scoring for Rosemont were Christian Barber with seven points, and Keith Gary and Ahmad Lloyd each with six points.
Liberty Ranch resumes conference action on Tuesday, as Union Mine pays a visit to The Hawks Nest.