Pitman and Davis High put on a game to remember Thursday night to open up the Godinez Tournament at Turlock High.
Down by three with less than 20 seconds left in regulation, Pitman’s Cyle Williams put up a three point shot with the clock winding down to send it into overtime.
Pitman regained momentum early on in overtime going up by three, but costly fouls along with missed rebounds, proved to be the determining factor for the Pride’s 65-66 loss to the Spartans.
“I think a lot of it is manifested in we didn’t rebound well all game and so there were key times we needed to get it but we didn’t,” Pitman head coach Harvey Marable said. “Part of it is that I didn’t have my team well prepared for the situation they were involved in today.”
It was an ugly game right from the start as both teams were rusty on the offensive side, failing to sink easy shots and the score was only 26-27 by half.
Pitman led by the start of the fourth, 41-39, but Davis responded by rebounding missed shots and allowing their offense to put up second opportunity points.
“We started out poorly but fought back and had a chance. Sometimes there are games that you need to win ugly and this was one of those games,” Marable said.
With a second chance going into over time, the Pride along with their fans, saw themselves within reach but they were incapable of the comeback and Davis’ offense eased its way into the second round of the winner’s bracket.
Despite the poor rebounding, Marable is confident that his team will learn from this game and move on with over 20 games left in the season.
“This is game six of a 27-game season, if I am going to take one game to ruin my season it is not worth being out here,” Marable said. “It’s why this is called preseason; you learn to work this out so when league starts we will be a much better team. We are going to keep plugging away.”
Williams finished the game with 19 points, five rebounds and two assists. Gurvinder Uppal topped out with 18 points, two rebounds and three assists.
Pitman will face off against Patterson at 4 p.m. tonight at Turlock High.
