John Lindblom
Special to the Record-Bee
LOWER LAKE — Lower Lake”s wunderkind Hokulani Wickard had a breakout game Friday night, scoring 18 points and in the process missing only one shot of any kind while leading the Trojans to a 61-58 North Central League I victory over Clear Lake.
“He”s one of those kids,” said Lower Lake coach Tim Biasotti. “You ask him to do something, he”s going to do it. He”s not going to work on it a little bit, he”s going to work on it a lot. We live by a park. I”ll go to a restaurant and I”ll see him in the park shooting for hours.”
Also contributing to the victory by coming off the bench and scoring eight points that enabled the Trojans to weather what could have been a dismal second quarter was Jeremy Snipes. He was playing in only his second game after being ineligible because of insufficient grades.
“We have a new rule here for basketball: a 2.25 (grade average). Jeremy has been working on his grades,” said Biasotti. “He brings a lot of energy.”
But when all”s said and done it was the clock that contributed the most to Lower Lake”s seventh win in 13 games and, more importantly, its fourth triumph in the last five games. Although certainly all five Trojans who were on the court at the end of the game played a critical role by refusing to let the Cardinals inbound the ball within the required five seconds.
The rules say if a team can”t inbound the ball in five seconds it has to turn it over to the opponent. So the Cards lost on a technicality, but the Trojans forced them into it.
The misadventure for Clear Lake went like this.
With four seconds remaining in a game in which the lead changed hands eight times and the score tied at 58-58, Wickard positioned himself directly beneath the basket for an inbound pass and scored on a body-twisting shot necessitated by his angle to the basket.
The Cards lined up to inbound after Wickard”s shot, but no one was open.
A game official counted down, “one thousand one … one thousand two …” in a noisy and spirited gym.
Clear Lake coach Scott De Leon took the loss — the Cards” ninth in 14 games — in stride. His only comment, “It was a pretty quick five seconds.”
He added, “It was a tough way to lose. The kids played their butts off, but you know what: That”s the way it is. I thought we played pretty well tonight.”
Stevie Diaz had 16 points to lead Clear Lake scoring.
“That was a tough game,” Biasotti said in a quiet locker room. “We were down by 10 (actually nine) at one point. In years past we”d probably lose that game by 20 or 30. But these kids have a positive attitude. They never hang their heads. When you never quit good things happen and we got the better end of the deal.”
