It was scary late, but here’s how Clovis West girls extended section basketball title run
That collective sigh of relief Saturday afternoon came from the Clovis West High girls basketball team.
Third-seeded Bakersfield cut Clovis West’s lead to 44-39 with 5:03 remaining.
But then the top-seeded Golden Eagles rediscovered their winning formula —after a scoring drought that lasted four minutes — in a revival triggered by Athena Tomlinson’s basket off a pass from Etoyah Montgomery.
From there, Clovis West held on for a 49-39 victory over the Drillers in the Central Section Open Division championship, giving the school its 10th consecutive section title, according to historian Bob Barnett.
“We have a lot of respect for Bakersfield,” Clovis West coach Craig Campbell said. “They scrap, fight, athletic, and battled. We knew it was going to be a (battle).
“We wouldn’t settle down and get back to the details. We got tired. We were trying to organize and they got us sped up and out of what we do, but it’s a credit to them. At the end of the day, it’s a hard-fought battle for a Valley championship.”
Montgomery admitted she “was freaking out” over how sluggish her team was in the fourth quarter.
But she trusted the defense.
“It was hard,” she said. “I was like, ‘Dang, we can’t let them score; we got to lock down on defense and we got to get a bucket,’ and those (thoughts) were going through my mind.”
Tomlinson agreed. She said the defense was what forced Bakersfield to take the “wild shots.”
“The shots that they were taking were not their main options,” she said. “That is what we wanted them to take. We were praying those crazy shots didn’t go in.”
The shots didn’t fall, at least enough of them for Bakersfield, as Clovis West secured its 23rd section title overall.
The Golden Eagles will find out who they will play in the CIF Open Division regional when playoff matchups are announced on Sunday.
This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 6:32 PM.
