It kind of seemed inevitable, doesn’t it?
The Clovis North Broncos and Clovis West Golden Eagles boys basketball teams seemed to be on a collision course.
And when the two teams met in the championship game of the Nike Invitational Saturday night, they didn’t disappoint.
By limiting Golden Eagles superstar guard Cole Anderson in the first half, the Broncos did just enough to secure a 63-62 win to remain undefeated on the season with a 10-0 record.
The Broncos made it a point to get the ball out of Anderson’s hands in the first half by trapping and pressing him in the back court, and it worked. Anderson finished the first half with just 10 points as the Broncos led 29-26 at the half.
Broncos junior Ak Okereke, who was named MVP of the 3-day invitational, kept his team’s offense on schedule in the first half as well. Okereke had eight points at the break.
But it was the third quarter that he and Anderson showed exactly why they are regarded so highly.
The two players put on an absolute show. Anderson finally got his shot going, exhibiting a series of step-back jumpers, drives to the basket and the ability to hit his free throws. It culminated with Anderson scoring 19 of his game-high 37 points, including three 3-pointers.
Broncos head coach Tony Amundsen knew it was only a matter of time before Anderson got it going.
“Cole is a great player,” he said. “He’s very good at getting his own shot off… we knew he was going to get some looks, we just wanted to make sure they were going to be tough ones. And he hit them”
Okereke knew that he needed to be aggressive to match Anderson, and he countered with 10 points of his own, and the two top teams in the TRAC headed to the fourth quarter with much still to be decided; the Golden Eagles holding a slim 47-43 lead.
Back and forth they went, trading bucket after bucket until the final minute.
The Golden Eagles trailing by two at 61-59, an unlikely would-be hero appeared to emerge.
Hitting a three with 10 seconds left was Ryas Vang to give the Golden Eagles a one-point advantage. Still, they needed one last stop to get the job done.
They wouldn’t get it.
The Broncos inbounded the ball in their own end and raced up the court to get a quick shot. It missed, but there to save the day was Terri Miller.
Miller aggressively grabbed the offensive rebound and layed it up as the buzzer sounded to stun the Golden Eagles crowd.
“In my mindset, I was just like ‘I’m going to go get this board,’”Miller said. “I’m not trying to lose this game.”