Clovis knocks off Clovis West in girls basketball. Two freshmen helped make it happen
Clovis High girls basketball coach Cooper Steele can finally breathe.
And with good reason.
Cougars freshman Sadie Sin hit 1 of 2 free throws with 1.2 seconds left to give The Bee’s No. 2 ranked Clovis a 52-51 victory over top-ranked Clovis West, snapping the Golden Eagles’ 33-game winning streak in the Tri-River Athletic Conference.
How huge was this win for the Cougars? The Golden Eagles came into the game ranked No. 12 in the nation by MaxPreps.
“I’ve never been in an atmosphere like that. I can tell you that,” Steele said.
And what did Steele tell his team afterward?
“I said two words: ‘Thank you.’ I can never, ever, forget that game. I just told them thank you for everything they put in to get us here, but we knew if we did our job we’ll be right there at the end. It wasn’t a fluke. We believed we could be there, and we did our job for 32 minutes.”
It was wild toward the end.
Freshman Yazmin Aguilera hit a 3-pointer with 30 seconds remaining to give Clovis a 51-50 lead.
Clovis West tied the game at 51 when Riley Wall made 1 of 2 free throws with 10.1 seconds remaining.
Sin was fouled and made a free throw to seal the win for Clovis.
“It was wild,” Steele said. “We’ve been in packed gyms, but every single person was engaged and loud. I had a couple friends there and they were like, ‘Dude, I have a headache. Like that was nuts.’ I think every single person in that gym was screaming on both ends.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2023 at 9:34 PM.
