BHS wears down GV for 7th straight win
| Wednesday, Jan 27 2010 10:52 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Jan 27 2010 10:52 PM
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Referee Jose Salas keep his eye on the out-of-bounds line as Driller center Cody Stapp saves the ball to it pass to a teammate at Golden Valley.
High flying Driller Alfonso Jackson soars to the basket in front of Golden Valley's Calvin Cooper who fouled Jackson on the play.
It's a scramble for the ball at mid-court between Bakersfield's Cody Stapp and Golden Valley's Lekendrick Ellis.
It's designed to wreak havoc on opposing teams. And that's just what the Bakersfield High full-court press did to Golden Valley on Wednesday night.
The Drillers forced 23 turnovers and eventually wore down the Bulldogs to claim a 70-66 victory that keeps BHS alone atop the Southeast Yosemite League standings.
"We weren't shooting the ball well," BHS coach Greg Burt said. "It wasn't the greatest offensive night for us, but our kids just kept battling, playing hard, and things just started to happen for us. I think it was just a lot of guts by our kids."
Tim Billingsley broke a 66-66 tie with 34 seconds to play with a three-point play on a reverse layup, and Golden Valley missed three free throws down the stretch.
Billingsley led BHS with 18 points. Tyrone Wallace added 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Cody Stapp chipped in 12 points as the Drillers won their seventh straight.
Chris Brown scored a game-high 23 points for Golden Valley (12-5, 4-2 SEYL), which could have tied BHS for first with a win.
"They just run teams into the ground," Golden Valley coach Pat Kjack said. "That's what their goal is."
After four second-half lead changes, the Drillers (13-6, 6-0 SEYL) went ahead on a pair of free throws by Wallace. Twenty seconds later, Arik Smith extended the lead to 66-62 with a runner in the lane. Golden Valley tied it on Lekendrick Ellis' floater with 47 seconds to go, and after Billingsley's go-ahead shot, Golden Valley had a chance to tie it when Michael Nichols was fouled on a 3-point attempt from the right corner. He missed all three free-throw attempts.
The Bulldogs were just 11-of-22 from the foul line.
BHS forced eight first-quarter turnovers. Ethan Horsey scored inside off a nice feed from Stapp 10 seconds into the second quarter to put the Drillers up 28-15.
But midway through the second period, Golden Valley began exploiting the press with quick outlet passes that led to numerous easy transition baskets.
"Our press break, when we run it right and the right guy takes the ball out of bounds, is really good," Kjack said. "But the wrong the guy was taking the ball out of bounds sometimes, and it kind of screwed it up."
Ellis scored back-to-back fast break layups to cut the BHS lead to five with 2:12 left in the first half. By halftime the Bulldogs had cut the margin to just two.
"I thought Golden Valley did a good job of coming back," Burt said.
