Story/photo courtesy CCCMBCA/CCCAA
LEMOORE — What looked like a blowout turned out to be one of the most epic games of the CCCAA Men's Basketball Championship tournament.
Sequoias got off to a slow start in its semifinal game against top-ranked San Francisco City at West Hills College. But the final seven minutes more than made up for it. In fact, the final seven minutes will go down as one of the most epic battles in CCCAA men's basketball history.
San Francisco City, the state's No. 1-ranked team, eventually advanced to the state championship game with a 71-65 victory over Sequoias.
San Francisco City coach Justin Labagh, the 2022 CCCMBCA Coach of the Year, will be trying to win his fourth state championship in his 18th year as the Rams head coach. The Rams (31-1) will square off against West Valley in an all-Coast Conference final. In the two teams' only meeting this year, West Valley edged the Rams, 73-70, on November 19. Since then, San Francisco City has been perfect, winning 27 consecutive games.
"West Valley will be super organized, well coached machine. They are not going to beat themselves. They don't make mistakes and we are going have to go and take it from them," Labagh said. "They beat us at our place, and it will be an incredible game."
The San Francisco City-West Valley final will be the fourth time the CCCAA Men's Basketball Championship will be a battle between two northern teams. The last tome was in 2012 when Fresno City battled Yuba. Twenty five times the state has been settled by two Southern California teams. The last time two colleges from the same conference battled for the title was in 2009 when Riverside squared off against Saddleback.
Sequoias, the No. 3 seed from the north, was outscored 17-4 over the first seven minutes of the game and eventually got down 14 points at 23-9 with 9:56 remaining. Sequoias, however, went on a 17-9 run to cut the Rams' led to 32-26 with 2:39 left in the first half. San Francisco City answered, scoring the final seven points of the half to take a 39-29 lead into the locker room.
Sequoias emerged from the locker room and immediately got to work, cutting the Rams' lead to three at 39-36 just three-and-a-half minutes into the second period. San Francisco City's shot selection in the opening minutes of the second half were questionable. Back-to-back air balls on three points and a number of turnovers kept the Rams off the scoreboard until the 16-minute mark when Mezziah Oakman backed in for a layup.
However, struggles continued as San Francisco City missed easy layups and put backs. Fortunately for the Rams, Sequoias was having its own troubles with turnovers and its own missed scoring opportunities.
With 12:05 remaining in the second half both teams had combined to score just 14 points. However, a quick 5-0 run by Sequoias pulled the Giants within three points at 45-42 as Ryan Johnson scored a bucket and Seth Dawson hit a three-pointer with 11:53 left.
Things looked began to like San Francisco City would pull away, after opening a 52-44 led, but Sequoias' Conner Jackson hit a three pointer and was fouled. He sunk the free throw, getting the Giants back within four at 52-48 with under 10 minutes remaining.
With 8:31 remaining, Sequoias had cut the lead to two, but a Ram 7-0 run rebuild their lead to nine at 59-50. With 7:27 remaining the teams turned up things up. Fueled by thunderous dunks, spectacular lay ups and athletic moves, Sequoias actually took its only lead of the game at 63-62 with 3:34 remaining when Terri Miller converted a three-point play.
In the final 3:34, San Francisco City forced a number of turnovers and closed out the contest with a 9-2 run.
"Sequoias was not going to beat themselves," Labagh said. "These guys won't lose that is this team's mentality. I wasn't worried. We weren't playing great, but they weren't going to let us lose. Down the stretch we just kept making those adjustments.
"At some point I decided to go with a smaller line up switch some things and honestly they didn't score after that."
San Francisco City was led by Naseem Gaskin with 17 points. Teammate Jamir Thomas added 14. Sequoias got a game-high 24 points from Seth Dawson. Jackson added 17. Sequoias ends the season 27-5.