Yuba City cruises past River Valley
If Yuba City and River Valley high schools were brothers, the Honkers would have to be considered the older, wiser more physical brother, while the Falcons would be the scrappy, younger sibling with something to prove.
While the gap may be closing between Yuba City's cross-town rivals, it was the inside presence of junior forward Zach Nelson and the all-around play of point guard Tyler Fry that carried the Honkers' boys basketball team to a 77-50 Tri-County Conference victory in front of a packed house at River Valley on Wednesday night.
After a sluggish first half saw the Honkers take a 32-19 lead into the intermission, Yuba City came out strong to outscore the Falcons 23-18 in the third period to take control of the game.
Fry and forwards Kevin Noall and Mundeep Purewal led the way for the Honkers, combining for 20 points in the period as Yuba City (16-4, 5-0) took a 55-37 lead into the final stanza.
"We weren't shooting good in the first half," said Fry, who finished with a game-high 26 points to go with his usual seven steals and five assists. "In the second half we broke their press better and starting making our shots. It was a good team effort."
The atmosphere of a huge, boisterous crowd also had an effect on the game, Yuba City coach Brad McIntire said.
"With this type of game with cross-town rivals, everyone's emotional," the Yuba City coach explained. "It was all about calming ourselves down and pounding it down low. And Noall did a good job penetrating in the second half."
While the Falcons (10-10, 1-4) had little difficulty breaking the Honkers' vaunted full-court press in the first half, they struggled to find rhythm in their half-court offense. As a result, River Valley connected on just 9-of-29 shots from the field in the half, including an 0-for-5 mark from behind the arc to put them in an early hole.
"We did some good things tonight," said River Valley coach Terry Evans. "But we were a little too jacked up on offense at the beginning of the game and took too many outside shots. The second half we took it inside and attacked them."
Junior forward Gabe Finley led the Falcons with 14 points, including eight in the third period. Freshman guard Manik Thiara and junior center Tazeem Hussain added 10 points each and senior Saam Anwer finished with eight for River Valley.
Noall had 15 points, Purewal added 11 for Yuba City, while Nelson controlled the paint to finish one block short of a triple-double with 17 points, 11 rebounds and nine blocked shots.
"Coach said to keep pushing and to pound it down low because of our height advantage," said Nelson, who enjoyed playing in front of the big crowd. "I love games like this. It's great."
Yuba City won the junior varsity game 65-47 behind Ryan Coxe's 14 points.
Justin Au added 13 points and Nuvraj Sahota added eight for the Honkers (17-2, 5-0).
Gurkaran Singh scored 18 points to lead the River Valley freshman to a 61-32 victory.
Derek Zaragoza added 12 points and Jake Phillips scored seven for the Falcons (16-6, 5-0).
