Stallions cruise to first round win
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune Madera’s Joel Galvan drives the lane for two of his six points in Tuesday’s playoff win over Caruthers.
The third seeded Madera South Stallions put away the 14th seeded Caruthers Blue Raiders with a dominant first half to advance to the quarterfinals of the Div. IV Central Section championships.
The Stallions shot 50 percent from the field and 13 of their 16 field goals were layups in outscoring Caruthers by 24 points in the first half during a 68-42 victory Tuesday.
The Stallions hosted sixth seeded Bishop Union on Thursday in the quarterfinals.
However, the Blue Raiders outscored the Stallions 16-11 to give them hope, but the Stallions closed the game with a 20-13 fourth quarter to record the victory.
“We still can’t play four quarters,” head coach Jody Sharp said. “The first half, I was very happy. We did a lot of positive things. We were very unselfish. We were working hard and playing hard.
“The second half, it was like I was watching another game. We didn’t sustain what we were trying to do. We changed some things to make it easier, but we didn’t sustain our effort in the second half. They are going to keep playing. They are a good team and keep playing hard.”
David Thomas led three players in double figures with 14 points, all in the first half. Ralph White scored 12 points to go with seven rebounds. Hakeem Primes scored 10 points.
The Stallions forced 20 Caruthers turnovers and 15 came by steal, led by four each from White and Junior Segura.
Madera South scored the first seven points of the game. Thomas opened the scoring with a 3-pointer and added a layup. Primes scored on a drive for the quick lead.
Caruthers’ Jarrod Gilmore, who scored a game-high 22 points, made a layup. The Stallions came back with seven straight points. Nate Adams found White for a layup, Primes hit a 3-pointer and White made another layup.
Thomas made a layup after a Caruthers free throw. He added another after picking up a steal. Caruthers closed the quarter with a 3-point play for an 18-6 deficit.
Primes opened the second quarter scoring with a two free throws. Segura picked up a steal and turned it into a layup.
After two Caruthers free throws, the Stallions scored nine straight points. White put back his own miss, stole a pass and made a layup off an assist by Thomas. After a Kingsley Thomas stole the ball, he found David Thomas for a layup. He made a free throw to complete the 3-point play. Then, Thomas picked off a Caruthers pass and turned it into a layup for a 31-8 lead.
Gilmore hit a jumper to get the Blue Raiders into double digits and added a 3-pointer two minutes later.
Andre Johnson found Amire Green for a Stallions layup. White then found Jayshawn Thomas for a layup and a 22-point lead.
White pulled down a rebound and found Thomas down the court for a layup and a 37-13 halftime lead.
White opened the second half with a steal and turned it into a layup. He picked up another steal and found Primes for a layup and a 28-point lead, Madera South’s biggest of the night.
Gilmore made a layup and two free throws to cut into the Stallions lead. Primes found Kingsley Thomas for a layup. Then, Gilmore added two more buckets and the Blue Raiders added a free throw to get Madera South’s lead down to 20 points.
After a free throw from Primes, Caruthers scored down low to cut the lead to 44-25.
Green scored off an inbounds pass, but Gilmore kept firing for the Blue Raiders. Joel Galvan put back a miss to get the Stallions’ lead to more than 20 points.
Caruthers hit a jumper to cut the Stallions’ lead to 19 at the end of the third quarter.
Segura opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer. After a Caruthers layup, Kingsley Thomas tipped in a Segura miss to get the lead back to 22 points.
Caruthers made a pair of free throws, but the Stallions answered with a White layup from Segura and a Jayshawn Thomas layup from White.
The Blue Raiders added a pair of layups before Jonathan Garcia hit a 3-pointer. After a Caruthers 3-pointer, Galvan hit a seven-foot jumper. The Blue Raiders answered with a layup, but Galvan added a layup of his own for a 64-42 lead.
Garcia made a layup and Thomas turned a steal into a layup for the 68-42 final.
