February 17, 2012 @ 11:38 pm
Overcoming a poor offensive and defensive first half that found them trailing by 12 points, Wilson came out of the gates hot in the third quarter, executing on offense and shutting down the Mountain View offense to emerge with a 55-46 win over the Thunder to advance to the 3A district semifinals on Saturday.
Mountain View’s Zach Torson scored 17 of his 19 points in the first half to help give the Thunder a 34-22 halftime lead. Wilson’s Jaiden Martin helped make up for a quiet half from leading scorer Kevin Johnson by scoring 11 of his 15 points in the first half.
“If one of us doesn’t step up, the other one has to,” Martin said. “So I guess tonight was my night to step up.”
Martin helped the Rams make a huge run in the third, adding two early buckets, and Pheonix Waters hit three free throws and stole two passes in a minute span to help close the gap to 39-37 with two minutes left in the third. Daviyonta Booth then gave the Rams their first lead by draining a three-pointer with a minute left in the quarter.
“Our pressure and our tempo brought us back in it,” Waters said. “Everybody just got confident, we all got together and said ‘let’s do this, we’re not going out like last year.’ Everybody got that fire in their heart.”
After Torson tied it at 42 with five minutes to go by scoring his only bucket of the second half, Waters answered with another bucket inside and Johnson hit a clutch three-pointer to put Wilson up 47-42 with four minutes to go.
“The seniors stepped it up in the second half, picked up the pressure on them,” said Rams head coach Dave Alwert. “We finally stopped (Torson). The scouting report said he could shoot, but it took a half before they realized he really could.”
Andraell Fountain, who finished with a game-high 18 rebounds, banked in a three-pointer for his only points of the game to clinch it for the Rams, putting them up 50-43 with a minute to go.
Waters finished with 20 points and seven rebounds, Booth added eight points and five rebounds and Martin added eight rebounds for the Rams. Wilson advances to the semifinals against Decatur on Saturday at 6:15 p.m. at Franklin Pierce High School.
