Bench players help earn state berth as Clark tops Foothill

By Jesse Granger

Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017 | 9:52 p.m.

Despite losing Saturday’s Sunset Region final to Bishop Gorman, the Clark basketball team was given another chance to reach the state tournament with a play-in game.

The Chargers did not intend to squander the opportunity, and cruised past Sunrise runner-up Foothill, 68-48, Tuesday night at Valley High School.

Clark overcame a slow start to crush the Falcons in the second half after leading by only one point at halftime. Senior Deshawn Wilson sparked the run, grabbing a rebound and slamming it home for a put-back dunk in the third quarter that gave Clark a 10-point lead.

“Those are the type of plays Deshawn is capable of making,” Clark coach Colin Darfour said. “I thought that really gave us the extra boost of confidence and also snatched away what little piece of confidence Foothill was able to get.”

Wilson finished with 10 points off the bench for the Chargers.

“Deshawn is our secret weapon,” Darfour said. “Nobody accounts for him and he’s a man out there. The reason people probably don’t account for him is because we bring him off the bench, but he would start for any team in the city.”

James Bridges carried the offense in the first half and hit multiple 3-pointers from well beyond the arc.

“He hit some huge threes for us and I was really happy for him,” Darfour said. “He’s one guy that any time he lets the ball go I’m happy. He’s the right guy to shoot the ball for us.”

Bridges finished with 17 points including four 3-pointers.

“I feel like this season I’ve been looked over a lot, so that fire just drove me to show people what I can do,” Bridges said.

It was a different-looking Clark team than the previous three playoff games, utilizing its bench far more. Chargers bench players scored 20 points Tuesday night after scoring only 13 total points in the playoffs to that point.

“That’s something I learned from the Bishop Gorman game, that we aren’t going to be able to get it done with six or seven guys,” Darfour said. “It’s going to take eight, nine or possibly 10 guys. If we accomplish our goal, we will have to play four games in three days, so we want to be as fresh as we can.”

Wilson led that charge, but Sedrick Hammond also pitched in five points and Adam Forbes and Joe Burnley played valuable minutes for Clark.

“It helps a lot knowing that we can trust guys coming off the bench to come in and score points,” Bridges said.

Clark’s leading scorer Trey Woodbury was his usual self with a game-high 18 points, and Mauricio Smith led Foothill with 11.

Now Clark is set to face Coronado in the 4A state semifinals Thursday at 8:15 p.m. at Cox Pavilion. Bishop Gorman will take on Reno in the other semifinal at 4:45 p.m.

“The job doesn’t get any easier now,” Darfour said. “That’s a hell of a basketball program right now coached by a hell of a coach in Jeff Kaufman. His team will be ready, but if we come out and play a full game like we did in the second half today, then it’s going to be tough for anyone to beat us.”