Woodcreek upsets Bulldogs in Harms' finale

The championship game of the Stan Harms Classic at Folsom High Saturday night pitted the two best teams at the tournament and two of the top seven or eight teams in the entire Sacramento area against one another, as host Folsom High faced off against Woodcreek. Teams can’t win a game in the first quarter, but they can lose one. The Bulldogs came out slow and Woodcreek scored 16 of the first 18 points of the game and led by 17 by the end of the first quarter, 23-6, and the Bulldogs never recovered, losing 59-48. Folsom brought the game to a four-point deficit at 27-23 with 2:10 to play in the first half, but that’s as close to the lead that they got. Woodcreek led by nine points at halftime, 32-23, and played with that lead that bulged up to about 15 points or so in the second half, but Folsom couldn’t put a dent in the deficit and lost 59-48. It was an exciting win for the Timberwolves. “That was a great win,” Woodcreek coach Drew Hibbs said. “We knew we would need a herculean effort. I’m so impressed with Folsom. I’ve watched them the last couple of days and they play such great defense, and I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to handle their pressure. “We had some mistakes and some turnovers, but we were able to score and keep them at bay. We did a really good job on the defensive boards. I’m really pleased with our effort and us staying with the program and with what we wanted to do. We haven’t done that much all year. To do it in this game against them in their gym; that’s a big win for us.” Woodcreek came out firing on all cylinders, as Michael Kirby Jr. and Zach Bualat led the way in the first quarter, taking their game right to the Bulldogs. Both players scored more than the Bulldogs’ six points in the quarter, as Kirby Jr. scored nine and Bualat had seven. As those two’s scoring slowed down in the second half, teammates Max Van Laningham and Tristian Lattimore stepped up. Amazingly, Van Laningham didn’t score in Woodcreek’s strong first quarter, but ended the game with a team-high 16 points, seven coming in the third quarter. Lattimore scored six of his 12 points in the fourth quarter. Bualat finished with 12 points, while Kirby scored 13, as Woodcreek had four players in double digits. “We got off to a great start,” Hibbs said. “They were sleep walking a bit and I knew they were going to get their butts chewed out from Coach Wall and come out on fire and they did. That’s a mark of a good team. “It’s amazing that we had four guys reach double digits. We didn’t go very deep on to our bench. I think all the sweat on the floor (leading to extended stops to wipe it up) helped us out a little bit.” As for the Bulldogs, they didn’t shoot the ball well, as shots rimmed out all night long. Alec Day played well and scored 19 points, while Jovan Dulay finished with 12 and Scott Nardinelli scored nine, as only five Bulldogs scored. Folsom’s Parks Weaver, one of the team’s top players, finished with five points and he was kept out of the scorebook until there was only three minutes left in the game. “That was five guys on their own program,” Folsom coach Mike Wall said. “Alec Day played a hell of a game and everyone else I don’t know where they were. They weren’t engaged in playing basketball.” Van Laningham earned the tournament MVP award, while Bualat and Lattimore were all-tournament selections. Day was Folsom’s all-tournament selection.