Central Section basketball finals: Lemoore boys stun D-II top-seeded Ridgeview

Lemoore High won its first Central Section boys basketball title in 24 years Friday night at Selland Arena by being extremely aggressive.

And, understand, against an extremely aggressive team.

Further, that was a 28-1 Ridgeview powerhouse that the Tigers defeated 84-77 for the Division II championship before about 4,000 fans.

“We knew that with a team that is aggressive as they are you have to come out and match it right away,” Lemoore coach Joel Sligh said.

Match it?

The 26-3 Tigers pulverized it, unleashing an attacking offense behind point guard Allen Perryman, crashing the boards and bolting to a 22-5 lead in the first six minutes as Jaylunn English scored 13 points, including two three-pointers.

And it was Lemoore 65-48 in the final minute of the third quarter before the Wolf Pack of the South Yosemite League made a determined charge – and even with frontline forces Jordan Roberts and Pardeep Dhand fouling out within a minute of each other midway through the fourth quarter.

The Tigers’ lead had been hacked to 73-70 – with Ridgeview fans in a Kern County-represented roar – when Tigers senior forward Spencer Stinger made the shot of the night, a three-pointer with 1:38 remaining.

Soon after, two Perryman free throws and an English jumper and two free throws extended the lead to 82-71 at 33.2, and it was over.

English, a 6-foot-7 senior headed to some undetermined and fortunate junior college, finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds and three steals; Roger Wilson had 17 points, Perryman 16, and Stinger 11 points and six rebounds as Lemoore won its ninth section title – but the first since 1992, according to section historian Bob Barnett.

Perryman was phenomenal facilitating the wire-to-wire, up-tempo charge against a Ridgeview team that had only lost 70-48 to Roosevelt-Eastvale in the East Bay MLK at College of the Sequoias on Jan. 18.

“Allen’s a floor general. He takes care of everything,” said Sligh, a 2000 Kingsburg graduate and former four-year Fresno Pacific player. “He’s a guy who doesn’t need to be told what to do. He’s constantly searching for it and finding it. I can’t say enough for these kids; they are goal-oriented winners from the get-go.”

It was poetic justice for Perryman, Wilson and backcourt mate Reggie Davis – impact football players who experienced a 45-19 loss at Ridgeview for the D-II title on Dec. 4.

Lemoore’s basketball win Friday night kept the D-II boys crown in Kings County and the West Yosemite League for a fourth-straight year. Hanford won it the past two and Hanford West in 2013.

Both Lemoore and Ridgeview will advance to the Southern California Regionals on Wednesday. Seedings will be announced Sunday.

Roberts, a 6-6 junior, finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks.

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 10:31 PM with the headline "Central Section basketball finals: Lemoore boys stun D-II top-seeded Ridgeview."