Ricky Rivera and the Yerba Buena boys basketball team have
accepted being the villains of the West Valley Division, Aztec
Warriors coach Anthony Bendter said. With their gym still under
renovation, the Warriors have played all of their games on the road
this season. They have, however, looked right at home as recently
as Wednesday, when Yerba Buena beat Live Oak 58-44 to remain within
a game of first place.
Ricky Rivera and the Yerba Buena boys basketball team have accepted being the villains of the West Valley Division, Aztec Warriors coach Anthony Bendter said.
With their gym still under renovation, the Warriors have played all of their games on the road this season.
They have, however, looked right at home as recently as Wednesday when Rivera, the league’s top scorer, went for 18 points, five assists and three steals, and Yerba Buena beat Live Oak 58-44 to remain within a game of first place.
“We’ve gone through a lot of adversity,” Bendter said. “These guys have learned to keep fighting. No one’s gonna give you anything because you don’t have a gym. No one’s gonna feel sorry for you. They’re gonna come after us.”
The Acorns had a good mind to do just that, with their playoff hopes starting to dwindle and their schedule looking handsome as ever. They play six of their final eight games at home, including four straight beginning next Tuesday.
Live Oak flipped the switch when it had to Wednesday – after Yerba Buena went on scoring runs of 7-0, 8-2 and 17-2. The Acorns whittled a 15-point deficit to 46-40 by the start of the fourth quarter only to be outscored 12-4 the rest of the way.
“They forced the tempo. They pushed the ball. They transitioned on offense; they scored way too much on transition offense,” Live Oak coach Brett Paolucci said of the nomadic Warriors. “They had way too many offensive rebounds. … I don’t know what happened, but we lost our man a lot tonight, focusing on the ball.
“We need to be more consistent and compete for the whole game.”
Live Oak made 6 of 12 from the field in the second quarter but shot 31 percent for the game, including a 2-for-13 effort from 3-point range. The Acorns built a 41-33 edge in rebounds and still needed more.
“There were some big ones we should have had,” said center Eddie Plascencia, who had nine points and 13 rebounds. “We were pretty good for the most part.”
Live Oak struggled picking up the Warriors’ backdoor cuts. When Rivera (20.9 points per game) wasn’t scoring he was distributing.
“He’s really improved from being a scorer to being a passer now,” said Bendter, who picked up his first win against Paolucci. “He’s more of a team guy. He’s meant to lead.”
A four-year varsity wing, Rivera had plenty of highlights. He beat defenders off the dribble and drove to the hoop several times, showed a nasty crossover during the fourth quarter and twice drove the length of the court off steals.
It wasn’t all Rivera. The Warriors (7-10, 5-2) received 14 points and seven rebounds from forward Richard Dao and eight points apiece from Wilson Tran and Harry Vaega.
They made timely plays as well. Tran drove from halfcourt for a layup and a 28-24 lead as time expired in the first half. Vaega hit a trey to stymie a Live Oak rally in the third quarter. Three Yerba Buena players forced a takeaway to start the fourth that changed the complexity of the game.
The Warriors looked much improved from their previous meeting on Jan. 5, when they squandered a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost 61-58.
“They’ve been out of their minds,” Paolucci said. “They’re playing good basketball. They’re beating teams that we have a hard time against. I knew they were going to be on a mission.”
Austin Carvalho scored seven of his team-high 14 points in the second quarter, when Live Oak led briefly 17-16 and 19-18. He banked in a turnaround hook shot and drew a foul, then drove the baseline and scored with a nice post move to tie it 24-all with 1:49 left before halftime. Tran’s buzzer-beater, though, took the wind out of Live Oak’s sails.
“We were making defensive and offensive mistakes, and they were capitalizing,” Paolucci said.
Down 41-26 the Acorns began rallying with defense and good ball movement. Carvalho hit back-to-back layups; Jakob Conlan dished to Andrew Poonia for an open 3, one of Conlan’s six assists, and Poonia went up and under for a layup in consecutive possessions. Carvalho hustled for a loose ball that led to a runner by Nathaniel Batey, and Live Oak was within eight, 46-38, heading into the fourth quarter.
“We shouldn’t have needed a rally,” Paolucci said.
Poonia made a layup 10 seconds into the final period to finish with 10 points.
The lead was six. That was as close as the Acorns got.
“Any loss is tough at this point,” Plascencia said. “Now we’ve got to fight for the next game.”
