Page 13 - Mid Valley Times 12-12-19 E-edition

Thursday, December 12, 2019
Pirates win Sierra Paci c Tip Off championship
Reedley wins first tourney title since Kingsburg in 2003
By Jon Earnest
Mid Valley Times
After 16 years, the drought is over.
The Reedley High boys basketball team captured the program’s first tournament cham- pionship since 2003 on Dec. 7, when the Pirates outran the Santa Maria High Saints by a 77-61 score to take first place in the 10th annual Gold- en Bears Tip Off Classic at Sierra Pacific High School in Hanford. The last time RHS took home a tourney title trophy was at the Kingsburg Invita- tional in the 2003-04 sea- son.
This year, the Pirates used a ball-hawking de- fense and an up-tempo pace to wear down the outmanned Saints from the Central Coast. Coach Chris Freeman used three five-man units in- cluding the top quintet of Aaron Todd (named tour- nament MVP), Augie Vil- larreal (all-tournament), Marcus Heinrichs (all- tournament), Leo Her-
Jon Earnest / Mid Valley Times
Reedley High’s Augie Villarreal drove the baseline against Santa Maria High’s Justin Gutierrez (23) in the fourth quarter of the Pirates’ 77-61 victory in the finals of the Sierra Pacific Golden Bears Tip Off Classic on Dec. 7. Villar- real finished with 19 points and was named to the all-tournament team.
Lady Apaches rack up more wins
Sanger improves to 7-2 after another solid tournament performance
MVT Staff Report
The Sanger High var- sity girls’ basketball team is now 7-2 after going 3-1 in the last week’s Selma Shoot Out.
Sanger opened the tournament with a domi- nant 66-26 victory over Mendota High on Dec. 4.
The Lady Apaches outscored the Aztecs in every quarter, taking a 36- 19 lead into halftime and then running away in the second half, outscoring Mendota 19-2 in the third quarter.
Leading the way for Sanger was junior An- drea Chapa, who scored 21 points, while collect- ing two assists and seven rebounds. The majority of her points came off of five made 3-pointers.
Sanger High junior Taylor Roth scored 19 points while shooting 6 of 8 from inside the arc. Also scoring double digits was freshman Natali Her- rera, who finished with 12
SeeSANGERonpage B2
nandez and Israel Vildo- sola.
“We got the game going fast-paced,” he said. “We really wanted to make sure we kept them going fast-paced because they only had nine guys and we had 17 to go through. The fast pace serves them well, but that’s also our game and we just had the guys where we could run them out of the game a little bit.”
Reedley fell behind
early, but kicked up the pace and eventually built a 47-33 halftime lead. The Pirates then began to wear on the Saints and forced a rash of high- tempo turnovers, turning them into easy baskets during a 14-0 run late in the third quarter that built the lead to 27 points at 63-36. Todd had seven points during the run, in- cluding a 3-pointer from the top of the key.
“We had so many steals and forced turn-
overs,” Freeman said. “I was really happy with how when it broke down we cleared back and were able to set up our defense and get into our man-to-man. That was probably the best thing about tonight.”
The Pirates led by 20 with five-and-a-half min- utes remaining, but brief- ly went cold and give the ball away on multiple possessions. Santa Maria responded with an 11-0 run to creep within 70-61
with 2:40 remaining. But Reedley sealed the win with a game- closing 7-0 run. Vildosola drove for a reverse la- yup, Todd made a steal and layup and another steal led to a another 3-pointer. Todd then drib- bled out the remaining 25
seconds of the game. Todd paced Reedley with 20 points while Vil- larreal scored 19 points and Heinrichs added 17.
See PIRATES on page B2
Dinuba standout wrestler, Cortez, off to strong final year
Emperors place fourth in annual Chukchansi Invitational, Cortez wins his division
By George M. Villagrana
Mid Valley Times
Dinuba High wres- tling standout Noah Cor- tez is on a roll after the senior went 5-0 to win the 152-pound division at the Chukchansi Invitational in Madera.
The Cal Poly signee was named Outstanding Wrestler as the Emper- ors finished fourth over- all with points.
Cortez wrapped up the tourney with a 5-2 win over Buchanan’s Logan Gioffre. As a team, the Emperors placed fourth overall with 162.5 points.
Coach Michael Wright said Cortez is expecting to have a fantastic sea- son.
“Noah was having a great year last year but suffered a season-ending injury, but has looked great so far this year,” Wright said. “He is con- tinuing to improve and develop as a wrestler and leader of this team.”
tournament with an 8-0 win over Tye Monteiro. He then reeled off three straight technical falls over Brian Oregel of Ker- man, Abel Cardenas of Madera South and Adar Schwarzbach of Palma.
Also having a solid performance was Javi- er Martinez at 285. The sophomore won a hard fought 2-1 decision over Dillon Bailey of Corcoran for the title.
“He is off to a great sophomore season,” Wright said. “After qual- ifying for Masters las year, Javier looks like he picked up right where he left off.”
Martinez picked up a technical fall against Emilio Gutierrez of Pitts- burg in the semifinals. He edged Travon Hous- ton, 9-7, of Hanford in the quarterfinals. Martinez also had a 6-0 win over Jesse Franco of Ker- man and a technical fall against Brando Vargas of
See CORTEZonpageB2
Mid Valley Times file photo
Dinuba High senior wrestling standout Noah Cortez, right, is making the best of this final year as an Emperor. The Cal Poly signee has started off his final season as a Dinuba wrestler going 5-0 and winning his division (152 lbs.) to help the Emperors take fourth place at the recent annual Chukchansi Invitational.
Cortez opened the