Antelope Valley edges UC Merced, advances to National Tournament - Mar 2, 2018

It only took three years, but Antelope Valley held off a furious second-half rally by UC Merced to claim the California Pacific Conference tournament title with a thrilling 63-62 victory. The Pioneers, the regular season champion and #1 seed in the tournament, will advance to the NAIA National Championship in only its third season of college competition.
UAV, now 20-7 overall, will travel to Sioux Falls, S.D., for the national tournament with the top 32 teams in the country. The action begins on March 7. The Pioneers will find out which team they will play in the Basketball Bracket Reveal Show on Feb. 28 at 3:00 p.m.
UCM, the hardest team to score on in the conference, seemingly had the right game plan, keeping the first 20 minutes of the game at its pace while holding Sheldon Blackwell (6'6''-G/F), the Cal Pac's Player of the Year and second-leading scorer, to just three free throws. Neither team able to gain any separation as the ball had difficulty finding the bottom of the net on either end of the court. UAV led 32-22, with neither team was shooting at high percentage.
But the pace picked up in the final period and became frenetic the final five minutes.
Blackwell had been held in check for 23 minutes, but he got his first basket on a coast-to-coast layup with about 17:30 remaining, and Steven Bush (6'3''-SG) drained back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Pioneers up 20 and seemingly in control.
But the Bobcats were far from done. Over roughly a two-minute span, UCM created shots out of its press and hit key 3-pointers, whittling a 20-point deficit down to just two with 10 minutes remaining.
Matt Laflin (6'7''-F) came off the bench and hit a pair of treys, one that turned into a four-point play, and Andrew Williams (6'2''-G) and Ryan Haywood (6'2''-G) were slashing to the basket, taking apart the UAV defense. Cole Taira (5'8''-PG) made a layup to bring UCM within one, 49-48, at the 9:45 mark, but Miles Nolen-Webb (6'0''-PG-96) converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to put UAV back up four, 52-48 with just over 9:00 to play.
UAV never surrendered the lead the remainder of the game, but it was not because the Bobcats did not have opportunities. UCM never trailed by more than five over the final 10 minutes, and had the ball for the last shot at the end of the game.
The Pioneers appeared to reclaim control of the game at the 6:06 mark when Nolen-Webb netted hit a three to put his team up 59-51, but UCM ran off five straight, capped by a Derek E'Denchukwu (6'4''-F) three at the 4:25 mark to get UCM back to within three, 59-56.
With 2:58 left, Hayden Hall (6'7''-G) pulled up in transition and hit nothing but net from beyond the arc to give UAV some breathing room, 62-56. But no one in the gym was breathing easy. After a UCM timeout, E'denchukwu threw down a dunk to make it a four-point game, and on UAV's next possession, Taira picked up a loose ball and sprinted for a layup to make it 62-60 with 1:47 remaining.
UAV was unable to capitalize from the free throw line, hitting only one out of four attempts in the final minute and a half. With 1:16 remaining, Williams found his way to the basket and laid one in to cut the margin down to 63-62--which turned out to be the final bucket of the game.
UCM had life in the closing minutes, forcing UAV into a shot clock violation on its final possession, and with 6.7 seconds left, the Bobcats had one last chance to go the length of the floor and score for the win. Instead, they inbounded and got to half court to call its final timeout with 4.4 remaining.
Haywood drove to the basket, but UAV's Jacob Mast was there to take a charge, and all that was left was to inbound the ball for the final tick of the clock.
Nolen-Webb led the Pioneers in scoring, finishing with 14 points. Blackwell was the only other UAV player in double figures, adding 10 points to go along with a game-high 11 rebounds.
UCM's E'denchukwu produced a game-high 17 points, Haywood chipped in 15, and Taira contributed 11 for the Bobcats, who finish their campaign with a 13-15 record.

CalPac Tournament Final: Antelope Valley - UC Merced 63-62
CalPac Tournament Semifinals:
UC Merced - Cal Maritime 71-70
Antelope Valley - Simpson 83-58

Courtesy of CalPac Athletics