PLACERVILLE >> The El Dorado Cougars hit a nearly impossible shot with 12 seconds remaining to beat the Clear Lake Cardinals 68-66 in a non-league varsity boys basketball thriller on Thursday night in Placerville.
Senior power forward Kellan Barney drained a 25-foot 3-pointer just as the 35-second possession clock was about to run out to erase a 66-65 Clear Lake lead.
“All you can do is just say wow,” Clear Lake head coach Scott De Leon said of Barney’s fourth 3-pointer of the game. “He was dribbling away from the basket when he turned around and shot it,” De Leon said. “I thought the possession clock was going to run out, but he hit nothing but net.”
Two Clear Lake defenders, center Jaron Mertle and guard Darius Ford, were right there to contest the shot to no avail.
“That kid made an unbelievable shot,” De Leon added.
With plenty of time to left to set up a final shot of its own, Clear Lake ran exactly the play De Leon drew up during a timeout. Mertle, who already had 19 points in the second half and 29 overall, pulled up for a corner 3-pointer and launched the ball before time expired. It caught rim but bounced away as the buzzer sounded. There was considerable contact on the play but no foul was forthcoming.
“It’s not a surprise we didn’t get the call,” De Leon said. “The game was physical both ways … extremely physical. He got knocked into the stands.”
Clear Lake (7-2), idle since a 54-48 overtime loss to Healdsburg in the championship game of the Redwood Empire Invitational on Dec. 14, held a 39-29 lead at halftime and led by as many as 10 points late in the third quarter before El Dorado (11-3) went on a run to close the gap to 54-50 by the end of the third quarter.
The two teams battled back and forth throughout the fourth quarter. Mertle carried the Clear Lake offense as El Dorado was able to shut down an under-the-weather Ford in the second half.
“He has a cold and wasn’t feeling well, but he played hard,” De Leon said. “And they did a good job taking him away in the second half.”
Ford still finished with 12 points, but only four of them came in the final two quarters – a basket and two free throws.
Clear Lake’s nearly two-week layoff didn’t leave them as sharp as usual, especially in the ballhandling department, according to De Leon.
“We made a couple of turnovers in the fourth quarter that were really untimely,” De Leon said. “We also had more turnovers than steals (for the first time this season). We had 15 or 16 turnovers.”
Barney’s 23 points powered El Dorado.
“They’re a really, really good team,” De Leon said. “We couldn’t match their physicality on a couple of our possessions in the fourth quarter.”
Tyler Cerini and Treppa Marcks each had six points for Clear Lake, which has its first two-game losing streak since the 2017-18 season. The Cardinals didn’t lose back-to-back games at any point last season when they set a school record for most wins and best winning percentage by a varsity boys team at 27-4.
“We’ll play better tomorrow night,” De Leon said of a Friday non-league game against Argonaut High School at Jackson. Tip-off is 7:30 p.m. The Cardinals play a third straight road contest Saturday against Amador, also at Argonaut High School, at a time to be determined.
In junior varsity action Thursday:
Clear Lake 59, El Dorado 40
At Placerville, Clear Lake jumped out to an early lead and beat El Dorado in JV action, running its season record to 8-0 under first-year coach Scott Persons.
“We got ’em pretty quick with our trap,” Persons said. “We got out to an eight- to 10-point lead and led by as many as 22 in the second half. We showed up and played well.”
Ethan Maize led a balanced Clear Lake attack with 17 points, Zane Robinson contributed 14, Joey Soderquist added 10 and Drake Smart came off the bench to score eight.
“Jack Daskam played a good game overall,” Persons said. “He rebounded and stole the ball.”
Clear Lake switched to a box-and-one defense in the third quarter to neutralize El Dorado’s top scorer, who had all 14 of his points in the first half.
“They (Cougars) have a very good team,” Persons said. “It was a good win for us.”
Clear Lake returns to action Friday against Argonaut at Argonaut High School in Jackson beginning at 4:30 p.m. The Cardinals play Amador on Saturday, also at Argonaut High School, at a time to be determined.
