Feb. 11, 2009

Seven Hills locks up regular season 8th grade crown; Weimar Hills closes in on 7th title

As the Nevada County Athletic League boys basketball season heads into its stretch run, one team cinched a regular season league championship Tuesday afternoon while another squad moved a step closer.

In the 8th grade division, Seven Hills traveled to Lake Wildwood and avenged its lone league loss rather emphatically with a 56-38 romp over Pleasant Valley. The win raises the Raiders’ NCAL mark to 10-1 and cinches the outright league title for the Nevada City hoopsters.

Seven Hills, which dropped its league opener to Pleasant Valley back on January 6th, has now won 10 straight NCAL games and will receive the reinstated NCAL perpetual championship trophy to retain for one year.

The Raiders will also take the 8th grade’s No. 1 seed with them into the season ending NCAL tournament that begins on Feb. 19 at home sites and continue on Feb. 20 and 21 at Nevada Union.

Meanwhile, in the 7th grade game, not much can get much closer between the Weimar Hills and Union Hill squads.

In the two teams’ key meeting Tuesday in Meadow Vista, host Weimar Hills pulled out an exhilarating, 54-53, double overtime win over the Bearcats to cinch at least a tie for the NCAL 7th grade regular season championship.

The game marked the second time this season that Weimar Hills and Union Hill have gone to extra sessions. On Jan. 8, Union Hill squeaked out a 30-29 overtime win over the Warriors on a last second basket.

Here’s a recap of Tuesday’s games:

8th Grade

Seven Hills 56 Pleasant Valley 38 – Leading 15-9 at he end of the first quarter thanks to a buzzer-beating trey from Lennie Kirshbaum, the Runnin’ Raiders then put their game into overdrive to pull away from the Vikings.

Paced by forward Sean Zuccaro and center Dalton McClure, Seven Hills led 27-15 at halftime and then stretched it to 47-25 at the end of three quarters.

Zuccaro finished with a game-high 23 points, all coming in the first three quarters of play. McClure, meanwhile, added 14 points while Ryan McCarthy added eight.

Seven Hills is now 15-3 overall on the season.

Pleasant Valley, which slipped to 6-4 in NCAL action, was paced by Tanner Vallejo’s 15 points, 12 from Jared Cook and seven by Weston Messer.

Weimar Hills 54 Union Hill 38 – The Warriors shook off a slow start to roar past the Bearcats and take over sole possession of second place in the NCAL standings at 7-3.

Trailing 12-9 after a quarter, Weimar Hills outgunned the Bearcats, 35-17, over the middle two stanzas to cement their win.

Weimar Hills, now 20-5 overall on the season, had eleven different players reach the scoring column led by Ryan Glazner’s 11 points, eight by Paul Ramseth, seven from Devon Loomis and five each via Taylor Dorsey, Austin Mulderrig and Will Buell.

Rounding out Weimar’s offense were Dan Cassilagio and Evan Critchfield with four points apiece, Tim Stuck and Clay Southerland with two apiece and Matt Larson with one.

Gabe Saturnino’s 15 points and 11 from Matt Spillner led Union Hill which was without the services of leading scorer Jason Mickel who was ill.

NCAL 8th Grade

                     W    L

Seven Hills    10    1

Weimar Hills  7    3

P. Valley        6     4

Gilmore         6      4

Magnolia       4      6

Union Hill      3      8

Forest Lake   0    10

7th Grade

Weimar Hills 54 Union Hill 53 ( 2 OT) - In a nail-biter that wasn’t decided until two final second shots from close range by Union Hill misfired, Weimar Hills survived to improve to 9-1 and cinch at least a tie for the league 7th grade title.

Weimar Hills needs to defeat either Forest Lake Christian Thursday or Seven Hills next Tuesday to wrap up the outright league title.  

Key late baskets in the second overtime from Jordan Balser, Jack Baldoni and Michael Wilson sparked the Warriors who survived Union Hill baskets in the final seconds of regulation and the first overtime to pull out the win.

Balser’s 25 points sparked Weimar Hills while Baldoni followed with 18, Wilson five and Chris Harshman and Adam Gutierrez with three each.

Union Hill was led by Logan Gardner’s 15 points, 14 from Kyle McCombs and 12 each from Jake Berger and Beau Depois.

NCAL 7th Grade

                    W   L

Weimar Hills   9    1

Union Hill       8     3

Forest Lake    7    3

Seven Hills     7    4

Magnolia        3    7

P. Valley        2    8

Gilmore         0   10