VVHS win shrinks Barstow boys basketball team's playoff hopes

BARSTOW • Giovant’e Avery’s slam dunk with less than a minute to play Tuesday night summed up the season for Victor Valley’s basketball team and the game for Barstow.

Avery, a power forward for the Jackrabbits, took the ball to the hoop from the left wing and dunked it sending the small group of Victor Valley fans at the Don Bilsborough Gymnasium into a frenzy as the majority of the gym fell silent.

The Jackrabbits blew out the Aztecs 86-44.

Victor Valley coach Matt Denny said Avery has been working on the play all season.

“He’s been (dunking) in practice, but this is the first time he done it in a game,” Denny said. “It’s pretty big for him. He’s a senior so it’s nice for him to get one as the season’s wrapping up.”

The Jackrabbits are riding a 11-game winning streak that they started in a 73-58 win over Barstow  on January 5. They last lost on December 29 against Dana Hills and haven’t lost in the Desert Sky League. Victor Valley (22-2, 11-0 DSL) had alreadyclinched the DSL Championship last week.

Victor Valley allowed Barstow (10-11, 4-7 DSL) to stay alive early in the game and the teams were tied at 19-19 with less than a minute to play in the first quarter. However, the Jackrabbits’ Cedric Young hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to put them up by five going into the second quarter. The outside shot continued to fall for Victor Valley. The Jackrabbits hit eight 3-pointers on the night including three by Zeke DeBlase.

“We’ve been fortunate with our outside shooting,” Denny said. “Mostly it’s our guard finding people open at the right time. Anyone can hit a shot when they’re alone at home in their driveway, and we had a lot of driveway shots tonight.”

The Jackrabbits ended the game with three players in double digits, while Alvin Jefferson was the only Aztec to reach that milestone with 16 points. Victor Valley held Barstow to 10 points in the second half.

Barstow coach Mark Hassell said his team was simply outplayed Tuesday night.

“We played well for maybe seven and a half minutes,” Hassell said. “Then they hit that 3-pointer at the end of the quarter. During the last 24 minutes we got beat in every aspect of the game a team can get beat at. We were out hustled. We were beaten on offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, offensive execution, defensive execution everything. I told the kids every team has a game you wish you could just throw away.”

The loss officially knocks the Aztecs out of contention for one of the top three spots in the DSL and automatic entry into the CIF-Southern Section playoffs. Barstow must now pin their playoff hopes on being awarded an at-large bid by the CIF-SS.

Hassell said he believes the Aztecs have a strong chance at earning an at-large playoff bid, especially if they win their final game of the season at Granite Hills Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

“After the game I told the team our playoffs start Thursday,” Hassell said. “We need the win, but we definitely have a chance to get in the playoffs still. We’ve beaten some tough teams during the season, and really only lost to one team ranked below us. We’ll see what happens.”

VICTOR VALLEY (86)
DeBlase 18, Sparks 15, Hall 10, Young 9, Jo. Clark 8, Avery 8, Malan 8, Kepley 3, Gonzalez 3, Ju. Clark 2.
BARSTOW (44)
Jefferson 16, Magaoay 5, Dumas 5, Lopez 5, Perdue 4, Curran 4, Smalls 2, Barajas 2, Alvarez 1.

Barstow    24    25    20    17    —    86
Silverado    19    15    6    4    —     44

3-point field goals — Victor Valley 8 (DeBlase 3, Clark 2, Young 1, Kepley 1, Gonzalez 1); Barstow 3 (Jefferson 1, Magaoay 1, Lopez 1).