Forest Lake's Austin Smith came up with this loose ball in 7th grade action against Pleasant Valley Tuesday afternoon. At left, is Forest Lake's Daniel DeValk.

NCAL 8th Grade Basketball

UH Nips Weimar To Gain Title Share

Since absorbing a Nevada County Athletic League loss at the hands of Weimar Hills last month, the Union Hill boys boys 8th grade basketball team knew that its chances for a NCAL title could come down to a regular season finale rematch with the Warriors in the Bearcats gymnasium.

And Tuesday afternoon, with a NCAL title in the balance for both Weimar Hills and Union Hill, that’s exactly what happened.

In a game that saw the lead change hands several times, Union Hill used a big fourth quarter to grab a lead it wouldn’t relinquish then survived a last second Weimar Hills shot attempt to squeeze out a 42-41 win over the Warriors.

The Union Hill win left both teams with identical 10-2 final NCAL 8th grade records. The two squads will share the NCAL title but Union Hill, by virtue of its win in the two teams’ second meeting, will take with them the No. 1 seed into this weekend’s NCAL large school tournament set for Bear River.

In Tuesday’s game, the two squads were knotted 15-15 at halftime before the Warriors out-pointed the hosts 15-9 in the third quarter to take a 30-24 advantage after three periods of action.

But in the tell-tale fourth quarter, the Bearcats caught fire behind Mike Tapia and Jake Berger’s six points each and two each from Kyle McCombs, Beau DePois and Nathan Selleck.

Berger’s 13 points led the Bearcats while Tapia added 10 and McCombs nine. Union Hill will receive a first round tournament bye and on Friday play the winner of Thursday’s first round game between Seven Hills and Magnolia.

For Weimar Hills, Jordan Balser had a fine game with 17 points which included a trio of three-balls. Michael Wilson added 10 more points while Jack Baldoni tallied six and Cole Joyce four.

In other 8th grade action Tuesday:

Magnolia 50 Seven Hills 47, at Lake of the Pines - Key late game charity shots by Braden Duncan proved to be the difference as the host Rattlers held off the Raiders. Duncan canned 4 of 5 free tosses in the final minute to help make the difference for the winners who finished 5-7 in NCAL play and remarkably will turn around and play Seven Hills again in Thursday’s tournament first round. Duncan led all Magnolia scorers with 21 points while Zack Quirarte added nine and Jared Skowronski seven. Both Justin Rypma and Skowronski each pulled down 9 rebounds a piece. For the Raiders, Dylan Conger also scored 21 points while Garrett O'Callaghan netted 11 and Connor Hayes tallied five.

Pleasant Valley 42 Forest Lake 38, at Lake Wildwood – The host Vikings wrapped up the 8th grade league’s No. 3 seed with the win. PV finished the regular season in league at 7-5 while Forest Lake was 2-10.

NCAL 8th Grade

(Final)

                        W   L

Union Hill           10   2

Weimar Hills      10  2

Pleasant Valley   7   5

Seven Hills          6   6

Magnolia            5    7

Forest Lake       2    10

Gilmore             1    11

7th Grade

Weimar Hills 41 Union Hill 16, at Grass Valley – Eleven different Warriors found the scoring column Tuesday in the romp over Union Hill. Weimar Hills, which had already cinched the outright 7th grade flag, led 24-8 by halftime and wasn’t pressed in the second half on its way to running its NCAL mark to 11-1. Ray Henry sank 11 points for the Warriors while Carrick Hoffart added eight and Nick Rondoni and Pat Beninga added four each. Also playing well for the Warriors were John Kirwan, Jake Buoal and Alex Tobiasz. Chase Loper’s five points and four from Sam Powell topped the Bearcats.

Seven Hills 57 Magnolia 53 OT, at Lake of the Pines - Magnolia came out on fire early as the hosts seemingly hit everything they put up. Trailing by 10 points with a score of 24-14 early in the second quarter, it took some hot shooting by 7 Hills guard Matt Demele, who had 12 points in the first half, to keep the Raiders close. Trevor Humphreys then completed a three-point play at the buzzer ending the 1st half to cut the Rattler lead to one point,  28-27.  The two teams then traded leads throughout the game and were tied at the end of the third and fourth quarters. In the overtime session,  Trent Foster had three huge points to seal the win, 57-53.  7 Hills center Stephen Skaggs had a career high 21 points while Demele added 14 and Humphreys and Foster each had 9. For Magnolia, John Voter had 20, Travis Whitehead added 15 and Brett Soloman scored six.

In earlier action not reported, Seven Hills defeated Pleasant Valley, 28-14. The Raiders were up 10-0 at the end of the first quarter only to have the scrappy Vikings cut the lead to 12-8 early in the third. Seven Hills then went on a 12-0 run to take a 24-8 lead into the fourth stanza. Jordan Jianino led the Raiders with 7 while Trent Foster added 5.

NCAL 7th Grade

(Final)   

                      W    L

Weimar Hills  11    1

Seven Hills      9    3

Gilmore           7    5

Forest Lake     7    5

Magnolia         5     7

Union Hill        3     9