photos by Charlie McDonald (charlie.mcdonald@surewestsports.com)
by Mike Finnerty (mike.finnerty@surewestsports.com)
In high school sports good teams schedule tough if they want to prepare themselves for a potential playoff run, and in boys basketball that's exactly what the No. 12 Foothill Mustangs (11-3) have done once again this preseason.
Foothill has a pair of wins over No. 14 Oak Ridge, as well as a win over No. 15 Kennedy, plus wins over very good teams from Southern California that include Compton and Dorsey.
On Thursday night, Foothill's next preseason challenge continued with a road match up against the No. 9 Bella Vista Broncos in what was expected to be a close game and it was with the Mustangs prevailing 48-46.
"I don't think we played particularly well, but they (Bella Vista) were good defensively," said Foothill head coach Drew Hibbs. "We were fortunate to get out of there with a win when we didn't put it away when we were up by seven."
Foothill took the lead for good at 10-9 in the first quarter and would see that lead grow to 17-9 when Anthony Williams hit the first of his two three-pointers in the quarter, but Bella Vista cut the lead to 22-20 by halftime.
The Mustangs spent the third quarter building the lead back up when DeShun Clay nailed three-pointer at the buzzer, upping the advantage to 39-32.
When Foothill's 6'4" senior guard and leading scorer, Michael Bryson, put his team up 48-40 with 3:01 left, the game wasn't over yet.
Bella Vista guard Ahmad Smith (12 points) took over down the stretch with a layup, a put-back, and mid court steal for another layup that had the home crowd rocking. Smith three straight baskets cut it to 48-46 with less than a minute remaining.
After a Foothill miss, Bella Vista got the ball with 19 seconds left on the clock, worked the clock down to the final seconds of regulation and gave the ball to Smith who had the hot hand. Smith attempted a three from the left arch, but it missed, and Foothill hung on for the two-point victory.
It was a tough first half for Bryson who had just four points, but 11 points in the second half (7 points in the fourth) proved to be big.
"He (Bryson) was playing great," said Hibbs. "He plays so many minutes for us. Teams are focused on him. He's really working hard and he's expended a lot of energy."
KJ Logue, Bella Vista's 6'6" senior forward and team's leading scorer at 17.3 points a game, had 11 points on the night and was held scoreless in the fourth, but Logue also played solid defense on Bryson for much of the game.
The Mustangs also received scoring contributions from Kelly Bender who had eight of his 10 points in the first half, while Anthony Williams and Douglas James chipped in with eight points each.
Foothill's preseason will conclude on Saturday against Deer Valley of Antioch in the Father Kelly Tribute at Jesuit High School before they begin league play at home against Rio Linda on Tuesday.