The Vallejo and Benicia high school boys basketball teams played a handful of down-to-the-wire games when they were members of the now defunct Solano County Athletic Conference.
Tuesday’s game at Bottari Gym was reminiscent of those days … except for the game being in front of no fans and in the last week of May due to a pandemic-affected schedule.
The Panthers hung on by the slimiest of margins, 52-51, in a nonleague battle that came down to the final possession.
The Redhawks (3-2) had a chance to win the game with 9 seconds left on the clock after Vallejo’s Juwelle Jack blocked a layup from Ryan Kirkbride and took the ball away. Vallejo called a timeout to set up a play.
Unfortunately for Vallejo, the Redhawks never got a final shot off after an uncontested turnover rolled the other way with Benicia (8-2) picking up the ball and running out the clock.
Benicia head coach Steve Carter figured the final shot would go to Jack so he had two of his players trap the Vallejo senior.
“We knew they wanted the ball to go to him or he was going to be a decoy,” Carter said. “We trapped him and I told everyone else to rotate and leave the weakside open.”
Vallejo head coach Andrew Johansen acknowledged that Jack was his first option.
“Yeah we had a play drawn up for Juwelle there at the end,” he said. “We had the pressure release come up and unfortunately we dribbled it off a foot. It happens. It was an unfortunate error at an unfortunate time. We had a play drawn up for him that we thought would be successful, but we just didn’t get the look. That’s how the game goes sometimes.”
Jack finished with a game-high 21 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. No one else on Vallejo scored more than seven.
Benicia had three players in double figures, including a team-high 13 points from Eric Mills, who had 10 of those points in the second half. Mills’ layup with 1:58 left gave his team a 52-49 lead.
“Eric has been really coming along, and I gave him the nod today,” Carter said. “He took his minutes and ran with them.”
Riley Dykstra had 12 and Kirkbridge added 10 for Benicia, which led 12-3 out of the gate. Vallejo finally woke up toward the end of the first quarter to trail just 12-7.
The Panthers increased their lead to nine points at 20-11 in the second quarter after a bucket from Gavin Lane before Vallejo went on a 12-3 run to trail just 25-23 as Jack nailed a 3-pointer and hit one of two at the line.
Benicia, however, closed the first half strong with a 3-pointer from Jayden Tirao giving his team a 28-23 edge heading into the locker room.
The Redhawks closed to three points three times in the third quarter, the final time at the 1:02 mark but Mills answered with a three-point play in the final minute and the Panthers grabbed a 40-35 lead heading into the final 8 minutes.
Vallejo finally tied the game at 40-all early in the fourth quarter thanks to a Kevin Barnes-to-Level Lemmons bucket and the Redhawks went ahead on a fadeaway 3-pointer from Jack at the 4:56 mark. Vallejo then grabbed a 46-42 lead on a 3-pointer from Damien Saiyad.
Benicia, however, never went away as the Panthers got a big 3-pointer from Kirkbridge and three of four foul shots from Stephen Ransom to keep the game close.
Vallejo’s final shot of the night was a put-back from Lemmons with 35 seconds left to make it 52-51. That’s the way it would stay.
Johansen’s team has lost back-to-back games after a big win over rival Jesse Bethel last week.
“We’ve hit a little bit of a skid as far as our rhythm,” he said. “We just haven’t been able to get into a rhythm lately. Everything seems like it’s just been very difficult. But we’re trying to work our way out of it.”
Barnes finished with seven points, nine rebounds and two blocks despite getting into foul trouble in the fourth quarter. Saiyad also scored seven points.
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May 26, 2021 at 01:28PM
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Vallejo High boys basketball team drops nail-biter to Benicia - Vallejo Times-Herald
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