Davis boys put clamps on West Valley late for 4A CBBN district basketball championship

YAKIMA, Wash. – The eight points the scorebook had for Davis junior Blake Garza hardly told the impact the 6-foot-5 forward had on Friday’s 4A CBBN district title game at home against West Valley.

The wiry Garza blocked, rebounded and redirected shots to key a defensive effort that helped the Pirates climb out of a 10-point halftime hole to repeat as district champs with a 59-54 victory.

A regional berth comes with the victory for Davis, which entered the contest 14th in the state RPI.

“When you look at the altered shots, when you look at the key rebounds, the key steals down the stretch in that fourth quarter he had during this game and he does during most of the games,” Pirates’ Hall of Fame coach Eli Juarez said, “eight points does not show the full line score.”

Davis flipped its comeback script from last Saturday against the Rams, when Cesar Hernandez scored a game-high 29 points in a 71-62 home victory.

This rally was built on defense with a few 3-pointers sprinkled in while remaining composed.

“I think part of that deals with this team of sophomores last year. They made it to state they were in the district championship game, they've been there before, so they understood the environment,” Juarez said. “When [West Valley was] up 10, we didn’t panic. They knew what we were not doing well and we discussed that at halftime and we made adjustments. They kept their heads about them and kept pecking away.”

Although the Pirates didn’t start at the glacial pace of six days before, early on they couldn’t keep up with the Rams who opened a 35-25 halftime lead with a balanced attack sparked by the shooting of sophomore Landen Birley and the low-post play of stoutly built 6-5 freshman Parker Mills, who scored nine and eight points in the first half, respectively, and tied for game-high honors with 17.

Davis opened the second half with the poise of a two-time defending league champion which had lost just one conference game (a 64-62 setback last month at West Valley) during that stretch.

Brothers Brandon Lee Jr., and Tyson Lee as well as Hernandez knocked down 3-pointers in the third quarter as the Pirates whittled the deficit to a single point heading into the fourth quarter.

“Our shots started falling in the second half,” said Brandon Lee, who finished with a team-best 15 points. “The second half seems to be our half.”

And while the perimeter players were canning their shots, Garza was doing his thing defensively. What shots he didn’t block or alter, he likely pulled down after they missed. West Valley made just seven baskets – no 3-pointers – in the second half.

“I definitely try to do everything I can on the defensive end,” Garza said. “I just try to bring the intensity and change the flow of the game.”

Yet that flow never brought Davis quite even with West Valley. Aside from an early 8-8 score, the Pirates trailed until they finally drew even at 52-52 on Tyson’s Lee trey with a couple minutes remaining.

Davis, which closed on a 10-2 run, finally took the lead when Finnegan Anderson knocked down a corner 3-pointer with 90 seconds left for a 55-52 Pirates’ advantage.

A few free throws later, Davis (16-5) celebrated much in the same manner the girls team had the night before.

Hernandez finished with 14 points while Tyson Lee and Anderson added 10 for Davis, which will find out Sunday its regional destination and opponent.

Oregon baseball recruit Tommy Meluskey scored 10 points for the Rams (12-8), who will host Eastmont – a 68-48 winner Friday against Sunnyside – in a winner-to-regional contest Saturday.

While West Valley is the home team, much like Friday’s game, there figures to be a large Juarez contingent in attendance as George Juarez, Eli’s older brother, coaches the Wildcats.