Hernandez's big fourth quarter lifts Davis past Richland in key WIAA 4A boys basketball matchup

YAKIMA, Wash. – A season ago, Davis High School junior Cesar Hernandez had an outing against Richland that was mostly forgettable.

Friday night, he had a fourth quarter that was quite unforgettable.

Scoring 15 of his game-high 26 points in the final period, the 6-foot-1 guard led the Pirates to a 63-60 home victory against the Bombers in a matchup of former league rivals who figure to be contenders at the Class 4A state tournament at Tacoma in two months.

“It was definitely one we wanted to win with this being our home town and we had to let it be known that we’re a better team this year,” said Hernandez, who hadn't forgotten his modest six-point outing in last December’s loss to Richland. “My mindset going into this game was to get the W, it didn’t really matter about the points – they’re going to come.”

Boy, did they.

After going scoreless in a first quarter in which Finnegan Anderson scored seven of his 13 points to stake Davis to a 10-point lead, Hernandez began to warm up.

He netted seven points in the second quarter as the Pirates’ lead ballooned to 11, and had four in the third when the Bombers erased an eight-point halftime deficit and briefly took a lead before Davis post Blake Garza knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the score at 43 going into the fourth.

Then, Hernandez took over.

He opened the fourth quarter knocking down a 3-pointer. Then another. Then seven straight free throws (he connected on all 11 he took Friday) sandwiching a bucket inside the arc.

The Pirates’ defense held the Bombers 22 points under their normal output, and swarmed 6-10 post Luke Westerfield, holding him scoreless in the first half.

Davis gain showed it can limit opposing big men this season, having already held Eastside Catholic senior and Virginia commit Jacob Cofie to six points at the Hardwood Invite earlier this month in Portland.

“I think they understand how much help you have to have and they do an excellent job of rotating quickly,” Davis coach Eli Juarez said. “They do a good job of getting to where their assignment is and causing a little bit of havoc.”

Westerfield bounced back in the second half with 13 points, while Landen Northrop buried four 3-pointers en route to a team-high 18. Lance Horntvedt and Jack Forbes added 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Northrup and Josh Woodard had would-be tying 3-pointers rim off in the final seconds after Finnegan had given the Pirates a three-point edge.

Both teams return to conference play next week with Richland (5-2) visiting Southridge on Tuesday while the Pirates (9-1) travel to Wenatchee on Friday.

Davis has beaten four Mid-Columbia Conference foes. They opened the season with victories against Pasco, Kamiakin and Chiawana before Friday’s victory.

“Everybody knows that our league is not that good so being able to get a win against all those Tri-Cities teams means a lot to all of us just to show them that we can compete with anybody and we did that,” said Hernandez, who was honored pregame for joining the 1,000-point club.