Missed free throws, but no missed opportunity for Fowler High in Division V championship game
The Family that couldn’t make free throws Friday evening when they counted the most held on in the crucial final seconds to score a thrilling 59-55 win over Sierra High to deliver Fowler High its first Valley title since 1916.
It didn’t come easy, however, as the host Redcats built an 18-point advantage with two minutes left in the third quarter only to:
▪ Suffer missed free throws, making only 1 of 6 in a 30-second stretch of the fourth quarter.
▪ Loss of top defensive player Japnaam Kahlon to his fifth foul with 1:57 remaining in the game. Kahlon also pitched in offensively with 15 points.
▪ See a tough defensive stop with 45.3 seconds left result in a loose ball that Sierra senior Noah McDivitt picked up and converted on an unopposed layup to pull the Chieftains (now 16-4) to 56-55.
It was only when Fowler senior Amneet Basra stepped up for and converted a pair of free throws with 6.3 seconds left that head coach Alfonso Alvarado and the almost-packed gym (some seats were kept empty due to the pandemic precautions, forcing several dozen fans to watch from opened doors) breathed a sigh of relief.
“I was thinking of making the free throws,” said Basra. “It was a clutch situation.”
Sierra High freshman Logan Kilbert scored a game-high 22 points, half of them in the fourth quarter.
The victory gave Fowler, now 16-1, the CIF Central Section Division V boys basketball championship.
It also:
▪ Served as redemption to the 2020 section finals when the Redcats succumbed in double overtime to Fresno Christian, 76-73. Fowler converted only one of three free throws with .4 seconds left in that game.
▪ Allowed 6-foot-2 senior Lucas Gutiérrez to finish something his dad, Dr. Hank Gutiérrez, failed to finish in 1988, when Fowler lost to Immanuel High by 10 points in the section championship.
▪ Demonstrated that it could keep Sierra’s 6-foot-7 center Mattias Sjolin in check. Fowler learned how to contain a taller player when it got past Strathmore High and its 6-foot-6 star Owen Patterson in the section semifinals.
“It feels great. We got redemption now,” said Basra, who finished with a team-high 21 points.
“My son got the redemption,” said the elder Gutiérrez, who earned his doctorate at Fresno State last month.
After Sierra had closed the deficit to 51-47 with seven unanswered points, Alvarado called time out with 5:26 left in the game and sent Kahlon back into the fray.
“We finally composed ourselves and got our stuff back together,” said Alvardo, in his 11th season at Fowler.
How about the missed free throws? The team made 13 of 24 free throw attempts.
“It’s something that we practice and we talk about it all the time, but I think with the game situation and with the crowd and everything going on, I don’t think you could ever replicate that to get an idea of what it’s going to be like,” said Alvarado.
The championship is special, he said, because he has been with the senior players since their third grade. That’s where the team’s moniker, Family, comes from. During the post-game celebration, Alvarado asked that the fans pose with the player for a group photo.
“It’s like they’re my family. They’re like my step kids. It’s like you grew up with these kids, you go in and out of their lives, their schoolwork, the life lessons you teach them,” he said. “The basketball program is looked at as one family, one team.”
Even after they graduate, they come back to help the Redcat basketball program.
“It’s good to see them finally get rewarded, and finally get the trophy,” said Alvarado. “Once we lost that (Fresno Christian) game, we had redemption on our mind. We wanted to get back in the gym.”
The players, he said, “did everything I asked them. I’m glad to see that it finally paid off so that they get rewarded and get to hold that plaque.
Esta historia fue publicada originalmente el 11 de junio de 2021, 11:18 p. m..