72nd Polly Wilhelmsen Invite: Tulare Western falls to North in tournament championship
Clutch.
North Bakersfield freshman guard Ethan Saenz was a good example of that six-letter word on Saturday night in the 72nd annual Polly Wilhelmsen Invitational championship game at Mt. Whitney's Charles Marshall Court.
Saenz scored the go-ahead layup with 18.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter as the Stars hung on to beat Tulare Western 56-54 in the tournament final.
Saenz led North (9-6) with 20 points — 12 of which came from 3-point territory. His triple with 4 minutes and 39 seconds left in the fourth tied the game at 48-all. Eight of his 18 points came in the final period. He also had a trey early in the fourth quarter that cut Tulare Western's lead to 48-44.
That basket sparked a 10-6 run as the Stars claimed the Wilhelmsen trophy.
Saenz was named the tournament's most valuable player. Saenz's teammate, Nate Becerra, finished with 18 points.
"North's a great team," Tulare Western head coach Keith Rickard said. "They execute their stuff really well."
The Mustangs (10-7) came out strong.
Jaydon Henningham, a 6-foot-2 junior forward, drained back-to-back 3-pointers to hand Tulare Western an early 6-2 lead.
Those buckets ignited a Tulare Western offense that nailed six triples in the first quarter. Malachi Ficher hit a pair of 3-pointers and the Mustangs also received a trey each from Michael Johnson and Xavier Garcia.
The Mustangs entered the second period with a 23-14 lead but North responded.
The Stars put together a 14-4 run in the second quarter and headed into halftime up 28-27.
Ficher carried Tulare Western out of the break, scoring six straight points to close the North advantage to 34-33.
On the Mustangs' next possession, Garcia's layup gave his team a 35-34 edge before Ficher drained back-to-back triples to push the lead to 41-34 with 2:55 left in the third.
That's when Saenz took over the game.
The Star freshman knocked down a triple with 1:15 remaining in the third and he sank a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to 46-39.
North outscored Tulare Western 17-8 in the final quarter.
Ficher led all scorers with 24 points. He connected on 5-of-11 3-pointers. He also had three rebounds, five assists and three blocks. Henningham went a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arch and chipped in 11 points. Garcia added nine points.
Tulare Western enjoyed a memorable tournament run.
The Mustangs defeated Pioneer Valley 80-59 in the opening round and beat Porterville 58-54 in the quarterfinals. They followed that with a 59-36 rout of rival Tulare Union in the semis before falling by two points in the championship game.
Four of Tulare Western's seven losses this season have come by two points or fewer.
"To do what we did this week is pretty big," Rickard said. "Just like a lot of other teams, we've been battling the flu. We haven't had a practice with more than eight guys in probably two weeks. We didn't know exactly what we were going to get coming into this week just because of guys missing a full week of practice and coming back from being sick so I'm super proud of this run. I know there are other teams out there that are sick, too, but to put together three solid wins, have a chance to win a championship, have a chance to win it, you couldn't ask for more than that."
North | 14 | 14 | 11 | 17 | − | 56 |
Tulare Western | 23 | 4 | 19 | 8 | − | 54 |
North: Wyatt Haner 3, Elias Griffin 2, Junior Rodriguez 4, David Vasquez 5, Dylan Taylor 4, Ethan Saenz 20, Nate Beccera 18.
Tulare Western: Malachi Ficher 24, Michael Johnson 5, Carson Miller 3, Kaine Garcia 2, Xavier Garcia 9, Jaydon Henningham 11.
More: 72nd annual Polly Wilhelmsen: Redwood, Tulare Union, Tulare Western advance to semifinals
More: 72nd Polly Wilhelmsen Invite: Tulare Western rolls to championship game vs. North
All-tournament team
Ethan Saenz, North (most valuable player)
Santana Guijarro, El Diamante (most inspirational player)
Nate Becerra, North
Malachi Ficher, Tulare Western
Kaine Garcia, Tulare Western
Cole Gilcrest, Redwood
Isaac Esquivel, Redwood
Brayden Stevenson, Tulare Union
Camden Haynes, Porterville
Javier Torres, Dinuba
Jared Pimentel, Hanford
Other tournament scores
Redwood 50, Tulare Union 46: The Rangers defeated the Tribe in the tournament's third-place game. Elijah Casas scored a team-high 16 points while sinking a pair of triples. Evan Galley and Zander Jensen contributed 10 points each and Cole Gilcrest had eight points, nine rebounds and six blocks.
Dinuba 70, Porterville 58: The Emperors won the fifth-place game. Dinuba drained a dozen 3-pointers with six of them coming from Josiah Ochoa. Ochoa had a game-high 25 points. Javier Torres added 19 points.
Hanford 61, Golden West 50: The Bullpups are the tournament's consolation champions. Jaren Pimentel led Hanford with 18 points. J.C. Turner finished with 14 points and Kourdey Glass chipped in 12 points.
El Diamante 65, Exeter 44: Santana Guijarro registered a team-best 20 points. Josh Velasquez canned 14 points.
Kingsburg 55, Mt Whitney 52: Jensen Hirschkorn netted 17 points to anchor the Vikings. Chris Browe had 15 points.
Monache 74, Pioneer Valley 53: Ty Baxter knocked down four triples and scored 32 points in the Marauders victory. Monache had 10 3-pointers.
Delano 68, Justin Garza 63: Jotham Amado sank six triples en route to 22 points for the Tigers. Ibrahim Shuwalt dropped 17 points.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Tulare Western falls to North in Polly Wilhelmsen championship
