‘Urgency is now’
Panthers .500 on season after 64-59 loss to Mustangs
The fight in Porterville and the experience in Tulare Western were both on display Tuesday evening with the defending co-east Yosemite League champions battling it out in their first meeting of the EYL season.
With a couple new faces to the team, the Panthers (10-10, 0-2 EYL) stuck with the Mustangs (15-3, 2-0 EYL) throughout the game but came up short 64-59, dropping their second straight EYL game decided by singledigits.
“The only difference is they have their entire team back and we kind of have some new people in but I was really proud of the way our boys played tonight,” PHS head coach Lance Wallace. “Didn’t help us starting down 9-0, we had to fight out of that...really proud of the boys for fighting back. I think they played really hard tonight.”
Porterville is on the road Thursday at 7:30 p.m. where they hope to pick up a win against Tulare Union and avoid going under .500 and missing playoffs.
“If we have the effort like we had tonight, I like our chances to win some games in EYL,” Wallace said. “We’re going to have to win some games in the EYL or we’re going to miss the playoffs. The urgency is here right now, it’s almost like the playoffs are here right now. We’re 10-10, we go under .500, we don’t go to playoffs. Playoffs are now, urgency is now.”
Porterville junior Gabriel Surita posted a team-high 17 points and led the Panthers in a second-half comeback with 12 fourth-quarter points against the Mustangs. Surita knocked two big 3-pointers in the first minutes of the fourth quarter that allowed PHS junior Colton Boyd to tie the game and PHS to take the lead 48-47 after the Panthers started the quarter down 43-37.
“He had a nice game,” Wallace said. “He’s really hot and streaking, when he gets on. He can hit two or three three’s in a row and thank goodness he did. He got us back into the game. Just not enough at the end.”
Surita kept Porterville in the game with a drive to the basket that brought the Panthers within one of Tulare Western after junior Jesse Hernandez
scored on a fastbreak off a steal from PHS senior Steven Kay. Down 5958 with two minutes to play, the Mustangs’ Marlon Benson made one of his free throws to take a 2-point lead. With 13 seconds to play, Boyd was fouled in the post but only made one of his two free throws leaving Porterville short 60-59 on their final score of the game.
Porterville tried fouling to get the ball back but a questionable technical foul called on Surita and good free-throw shooting from the Mustangs Bryan Paredes allowed Tulare Western to seal the win. Besides Surita, Boyd and junior Kaden Ramage finished in double digits for the Panthers with 16 and 14 points, respectively.
“We’re trying to get
it inside, trying to slow the game down,” Wallace said. “They’re such a talented team. They like to run, they run up and down the floor really well so we just tried to slow it down and get the ball inside to Colton. And the kids did follow the game plan really, really well. Just came up a little short tonight.”
Besides the Mustangs’ early 9-0 run, the Panthers were either down one-point, tied or leading Tulare Western for much of the game. Down 1514 after the first, both teams scored 16 points in the second quarter for a 31-30 score in the Mustangs’ favor. Western began to pull away in the third quarter after scoring 12 points to Porterville’s seven. Western’s Deeandre Hulett led all scores with 19 points.