OAKLAND — The Hoopa Valley Warriors don’t have a lot of size, with their tallest player at just 6-foot-1, and with just nine players suited up for Monday night’s NCS Division 5 Quarterfinal, they didn’t have a lot of manpower either.
What the Warriors did have was heart, and they hustled and scrapped their way to a 46-45 win at Head-Royce on Monday night to earn a CIF State Tournament bid for the first time since 2003.
“We know that we have to play bigger than we are,” head coach Tyler Mitchell, a 2009 Hoopa Valley graduate, said. “It’s important to box out, close out and play tough defense. I think the boys showed the heart they had tonight.”
After trailing for the entirety of the second half, the host Jayhawks took a 44-42 lead on a pair of Alex Allen free throws with 1:15 left and went back in front by one when he split a pair at the line with 59.2 left, but Hoopa Valley’s John Smith hit an elbow jumper with 5.2 seconds remaining that would hold up as the game-winner.
“It was kind of just in the moment,” Smith said. “They triple-teamed (leading scorer George Navarro), I was open and I took the shot.”
Navarro, who entered the night averaging an absurd 30.7 points per game, and though he was the high scorer for the fifth-seeded Warriors, the 17 he did finish with marked his lowest output of the season. Still, his presence alone drew thorough attention from Head-Royce (18-9), which opened the door for Smith to knock down the go-ahead shot.
The fourth-seeded Jayhawks had one last chance, but a contested 3-pointer from the corner hit off the backboard and bounced away, letting Hoopa Valley (21-7) celebrate a long-awaited state tournament berth with their boisterous fans, many of whom drove more than five hours for the game.
“Man, it’s awesome,” Smith said of the support. “I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Even though they were playing over 300 miles from home, the Warriors’ fans doubled Head-Royce’s supporters in number and drowned them out for the most of the night.
“It just says what kind of community we have. The support they give to our youth is super-important, and without them the game could’ve been a lot different,” Mitchell said. “Back home on the Hoopa Reservation, we have a tight-knit community, and basketball is one of our main positive things.”
Many of those fans will be trekking to San Francisco on Wednesday night when the Warriors battle top-seeded Stuart Hall, something that wouldn’t have been possible if not for an unlikely hero.
Dennis Young had been struggling offensively all night, but his only basket came on a drive through the paint with 1:06 left to re-tie the game.
“The lane was there,” the senior said. “I just took it.”
Allen was fouled in the backcourt after Young missed a free throw that could have put Hoopa Valley on top, and with the Jayhawks in the double bonus, he missed his first free throw but made the second, the last of his 22-point, 12-rebound performance.
The teams would trade turnovers over the next 30 seconds, and though Navarro would miss a 3-pointer that would have put his team on top, the long rebound found its way to Smith and the Warriors called their final timeout with 9.3 seconds left. Though the hosts had a foul to give, they opted not to use it, and with all of the defense’s focus on Navarro, Smith got the open look and cashed in.
Navarro hit a pair of 3-pointers on the night, including one to give the Warriors their largest lead of the night at 38-31 late in the third. Hoopa Valley made seven 3-pointers in all, with four coming from Wade Nixon, who scored 16 on the night.
Sophomore point guard Nick Ortiz scored 14 for the Jayhawks, including back-to-back baskets in the fourth to cut the Warrior lead to two as he willed his team back into the game. An Allen offensive rebound on the next possession led to an open layup for Nolan Thompson to tie the game.
Thompson scored just four points on the night but had 16 rebounds as Head-Royce held a 42-27 advantage on the glass. Even that wouldn’t deter the Warriors, though.
“They like to fight and dig, and we expected even more effort from them with their game being rescheduled,” Jayhawks head coach Miles Tarver said. “At the end of the day, we didn’t play well enough to win and they did.”
The rest of the quarterfinals were played on Saturday, but Hoopa Valley’s first-round game, at home against Urban, had to be pushed from Wednesday to Friday with snow causing adverse road conditions. That led to the trip to Head-Royce getting pushed back, and the Warriors will be back in the Bay Area in one more day.
It’s a trip they won’t be complaining about.
