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Tigers get past Hoover 61-56 in Division II opener, next up Garces in Bakersfield
Allen Perryman joined Honeywood as the team’s top scorer with 13 points. C.J. Johnson, despite having foul trouble in the third quarter, finished with 11 points while Erick Perry had eight.
Lemoore faces a longtime playoff foe Garces in the next round Thursday night in Bakersfield. Game time is 7 p.m. The Rams finished at 8-2 in the Southeast Yosemite League, good enough for a first-place tie with East Bakersfield and Tehachapi. They were 18-9 overall. Their leading scorer is Rashad Jackson, averaging nearly 21 points per game.
Lemoore led the entire game, but Hoover kept it close thanks in large part to the play of J.R. Windom who scored 10 points in the deciding fourth quarter. It was Windom’s two free throws late in the final period that cut Lemoore’s lead to 55-52.
“This has been one of the better games they’ve played as a whole unit,” said Sligh. “I didn’t see too many standout individual performances but they were all seeming to be able to give the ball up and really work as a whole unit and a whole team. And that’s what you want from a team.”
After Honeywood scored inside on a brilliant assist from Johnson to go up by five, Windom grabbed a rebound, and trailing by three points, drove the length of the court and scored to cut the gap to just one at 57-56.
But that was as close as they were to get. The Tigers got another bucket from Honeywood and led 59-56 with just 30 seconds left in the game. Johnson got the ball back for Lemoore when he leapt out of bounds, grabbed the ball and bounced it off a Hoover play to keep possession for the Tigers.
With just 17.2 seconds left Perryman sank two free throws for a 61-56 advantage and that’s where it stayed.
Lemoore improved to 17-11 on the season
