Reedley outlasts Arvin in title game
FRESNO — Arvin and Reedley shot a combined 3-for-27 from beyond the arc in Saturday morning’s Division V section championship at Selland Arena. But Emily Pallesi converted twice for the Pirates when it mattered most.
First, with the Bears threatening to score on their final possession of the first half and take a lead into the break, she secured a critical steal around midcourt and got into position for a 3-pointer on the right wing. She drilled it to put Reedley up 26-22 at halftime.
Then, with 1:15 remaining in the title game, Pallesi connected from the corner, once again boosting the Pirates’ lead to four points in a high-leverage situation.
Arvin’s Marianna Ortiz saw her own attempted 3-pointer hit the rim and bounce out moments later.
Raquel Cortez hit six key free throws down the stretch against the foul-prone Bears, and Reedley held on for a 54-44 win.
Cortez, the Pirates’ leading scorer with 18 points and nine rebounds, sank nine free throws in the fourth quarter alone as part of a 24-for-38 shooting day at the line for Reedley. Arvin, meanwhile, could only muster a 7-for-21 showing.
“We didn’t hit critical free throws, and they did, and we just lost our way a little bit,” Arvin coach Mario Pena said. “By the time we tried to get back, we couldn’t. (We felt) like we’re climbing up a hill.”
The Bears led 39-35 entering the fourth quarter, but were held scoreless for more than five minutes. Roxana Fernandez scored a game-high 19 points to sustain Arvin’s offense, but all came in the first three quarters as she was held scoreless early in the fourth, then fouled out.
Fernandez’s departure was a key moment in a game that had previously seen Arvin alter its flow by drawing fouls against Reedley center Ana Drolette.
After a back-and-forth start, the Bears strung together an 8-2 stretch entering the second quarter, in part because Drolette, who was getting into the paint at will and had six points in
the first quarter to match Fernandez, accrued her second and third fouls in the first minute and a half of the period.
That diminished the Pirates’ presence inside, but that was rarely relevant because they were playing so much in transition as the quarter went on. Arvin spent virtually the whole game pressing and forced 24 turnovers, but committed 23 of its own.
Reedley scored nine straight to take a six-point second-quarter lead, including five points from Cortez, despite a timeout midway through the run by Arvin.
However, the Bears got just what they needed when center Marie Montes busted through the middle of the Pirates’ defense, rattling in a layup and converting the ensuing free throw to cut the deficit to 21-18 late in the second quarter.
No other Arvin player but Fernandez scored in double digits on the day, but Montes tallied seven points and nine rebounds.
The Bears briefly retook the lead in the third quarter on a Fernandez 3-pointer off a series of offensive rebounds, but saw it evaporate immediately on a putback by a resurgent Drolette.
After a three-point play by Niana Holman on a putback early in the fourth quarter, Reedley led for the remainder of the game.
The result was a disappointing end for an Arvin team that had seemed to find its stride toward the end of the season and had won seven of nine entering Saturday.
“Our community can be proud of our girls,” Pena said. “By no means are we a basketball city, but we’re becoming that. Our girls are working like their parents.”
He added that the Bears return 12 players next year.
For Reedley, it was the first section title in girls basketball since 1983, delivered by Pallesi’s father Mike.
A longtime boys basketball coach who previously won championships at Tollhouse-Sierra and Selma, Mike Pallesi added a girls basketball title on the same weekend the CIF gave him a lifetime achievement award.