Foothillers stay alive, ahead of Pack

By Adam Paul
Updated: February 10, 2018

Grossmont and West Hills match up on Friday in Santee.

EAST COUNTY PREP BOYS BASKETBALL

By Adam Paul

EastCountySports.com

GROSSMONT HILLS LEAGUE

GROSSMONT 65, WEST HILLS 59 (2 OT)

SANTEE (2-9-18) – When these Grossmont and West Hills varsity basketball squads met back on the 19th of January at Grossmont, the Wolf Pack won a squeaker 59-58. So by that score, the pretty packed gym of the fans in attendance were going to be in for a treat if the contest could match that score.

Grossmont drives against West Hills on Friday night. / photo by Tammy Ryan – TRYAN PHOTOGRAPHY

By all means did it match the intensity of last time as both teams went back and forth in the first quarter as Austin Odom for the Hillers would put up 7 points and for the Pack Cam Barry would tally 9 points. However, at the end of the first quarter, the Foothillers would lead narrowly 16-14.

With 6:00 remaining in the second quarter, Grossmont would use an 8-0 run to lead 24-16 but West Hills would have their say as they would knot the quarter scoring at 11-11 and use an 11-3 run to only trail 27-25 at the break.

In the second half, the Wolf Pack started out on a 4-0 run to take the lead 29-27. Both teams would go back and forth for pretty much the entire rest of the quarter.

However, the Pack had a slim lead with over a minute remaining when Michael Totah was called for a technical foul which sent the Foothillers to the line where they calmly sank both shots to pull within 38-37.

The Wolf Pack in the final minute of the third quarter would outscore Grossmont 5-4 to outscore them 17-14 and lead 42-41 heading into the fourth quarter.

After going back and forth a little to start the fourth quarter, Morgan Stidum would knock down a three-pointer with four minutes remaining to tie the game at 46-46.

However, the tie would only last about a half a minute when Barry would drill a three to put the Pack up 49-46 but again Stidum came up huge for Grossmont only twenty seconds later when he knocked down another three-pointer to tie the score again at 49-49.

Interestingly enough that would be the last basket of the quarter for the final three minutes as each team couldn’t buy a basket.

So into bonus ball both teams went and each team only scored 4 points apiece but West Hills had an opportunity to win but missed. Once again bonus ball as it was now double-overtime.

In the second overtime, Grossmont took advantage of their opportunities as Austin Odom scored 6 points and Stidum tallied 4 points.

West Hills senior star CAM BARRY drives to the basket Friday night. / photo by Tammy Ryan – TRYAN PHOTOGRAPHY

West Hills, on the other hand, couldn’t buy a bucket as Barry was limited to only 4 points in the overtime period. Grossmont was able to grab a crucial rebound and West Hills had to foul which sent the Hillers to the line where they would knock down the shots to put the game away.

For the Foothillers three players tallied double-digit scoring with Odom leading the charge tallying 23 points which included a couple treys, Stidum with 14 including a couple three balls and Mykol Rodriguez tallying 13 points.

Leading West Hills and all scorers on the night was Barry who canned 35 points including a couple three-pointers while Chris Schroeder scored 8 points.

With the victory, the Foothillers stay in contention for a possible league crown as they are only a game back of the Helix Highlanders while West Hills, unfortunately, fell out of contention and is now in fourth place.

Grossmont who has won 2 games in a row is now 14-11 (5-3) while West Hills falls to 14-9 (4-4).

Next up on the schedule for Grossmont is a road game at Steele Canyon on Tuesday, February 13th at 6 pm, while West Hills has a home game against Valhalla at 6 pm.