Orland stuffs Willows in D-IV showdown

It was a tale of two halves Friday night in Orland, as the Orland and Willows high boys basketball teams went at it, with a trip to the Division IV semifinals at stake. For Orland, it was the best of times; for Willows, the worst of times.

Trailing just 26-25 at the intermission, the Honkers' offense flew south for the second half, scoring just 15 points as the Trojans put up 33 for a 64-40 victory.

"The was the worst half we've played all season," said Willows coach Darrell Schonauer of the second half. "The defensive pressure really got to us, and we made bad choices on shots and passes."

Willows had no problems out of the gate, using a 9-point run in the first period to open up a 13-4 lead, before Orland responded with a pair of buckets to make it 13-8 after one.

Forrest Johnson made a shot in heavy traffic and then drained a trey, Ryan Welsh canned a jumper from the free-throw line, and Javier Raigoza added two from the paint to complete the run.

Orland responded by bunching points for runs of 6-0 and 8-0 in the second period, the latter fueled by successive threes by Jud Sailsbery to take a one-point lead into the locker room.

The Trojans changed things up at halftime, and the fresh approach was just what Orland needed.

"We rebounded in the second half and clamped down on them defensively," said Orland coach Jason Bragg, acknowledging Willows had won the battle of the boards in the first half.

The Trojans made the most of fast-break opportunities, drove aggressively to the basket, and also continued shooting the 3-pointer, with Sailsbery and Ethan Schmeltzer both connecting from behind the arc.

"They have the green light to shoot the 3-pointer when it's open," the coach said. "We also changed our offense in the second quarter and we started getting better looks."

And sometimes, they were just in the right place at the right time. Sailsbery plucked a missed three-point attempt out of the air underneath, and converted it into a reverse lay-up for a nifty two.

In the fourth quarter, Orland also made excellent use of the shot clock, dribbling and passing precious seconds away before looking to take any shots.

Orland got nine players into the scorebook at the end, led by Jose Huerta's 15 points, 13 from Sailsbery and 12 by Schmeltzer. The Trojans shot 45-percent (26-of-58) from the floor, and were 7-of-14 at the line.

Raigoza's 14 was tops for Willows, which got seven apiece from Welsh, Johnson and Vadym Samoylov.

The Honkers finished the season 18-10.

The win was even sweeter for coach Bragg, as it marked his 100th as head coach of the Trojans, but number 101 would him even happier. He'll get to try for that Wednesday, when the Trojans (19-8), host No. 3 Central Valley. In a Jan. 9 meeting in the Corning Shootout, the Trojans demolished the Falcons 61-36.

Craig Purcell is sports editor for Tri-County Newspapers. Contact him at 824-1036 or cpurcell@tcnpress.com.

Orland 64, Willows 40

Willows 13 12 9 6 -40

Orland 8 18 25 13 -64

Willows (40): Raigoza, 14; Welsh, 7; Johnson, 7; Samoylov, 7; Alves, 3; Bateman, 2

Orland (64): Huerta, 15; Sailsbery, 13; Schmeltzer, 12; St. Batchelder, 7; Garcia, 6; Coleman, 6; Jiminez, 2; Bradford, 2; Llamas, 1