Fourth-quarter comeback sends Delta to CCCAA State Women's Basketball Final

LEMOORE--A furious rally from down 17 points in the fourth quarter lifted state #1-ranked San Joaquin Delta to a 77-74 victory over South #2 Irvine Valley in a CCCAA Women's Basketball Championship semifinal on Saturday afternoon. The Mustangs (30-2) advanced to their third state championship final as they shoot for the program's first-ever state title on Sunday.

Trailing 65-48 with seven minutes remaining, Delta put together an amazing 19-1 scoring run to take its first lead of the game on a basket by Northern California Player of the Year Donja Payne with 1:43 left. Payne made another big play when she grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed free throw by teammate Breanna Grigsby and layed it in for a 71-68 lead with 46 seconds to go.

Alicia Jones was money in the final seconds in making four free throws to seal Delta's eighth straight win. Payne put on a clinic in the paint, making 11 of 13 shots from the floor, grabbing 10 rebounds, making two steals and two blocks, and totaling 23 points. Grigsby was a big part of the Delta comeback, scoring 12 of her 18 points in the second half while adding 12 rebounds. 

Irvine Valley's farthest trip ever in the postseason ended along with the team's 18-game winning streak. The Lasers (26-3) were led by the guard duo of Paola Roa and Jessica Suruor, who each scored 23 points.

Delta head coach Gina Johnson talked about her team's rally. "I've been coaching for 30 years and I've never seen us play so nervous and so complacent in that first half. We couldn't get our act together. But we have some second and third-year sophomores due to COVID-19 and all of them had a part in this comeback. A lot of teams rely on one or two players, but we count on all nine players to contribute. Our team is a team of big runs. In the fourth quarter, we finally were getting in that mode."

In the big scoring run for the Mustangs, Payne, Trena Rathjen scored baskets, Andraya Perez sank a corner 3, Grigsby hit back-to-back buckets, and All-State Third Team guard Maya Chelini, who had been scoreless all game, drained consecutive 3-pointers, her second cutting it to one, 66-65, with 2:14 remaining. Delta made 75 percent from the field in the final 10 minutes, making 9-for-12. 

The Lasers had opened up a commanding 50-33 first-half lead with a relentless offensive attack and a hounding full-court press. Suruor sank 5-for-6 from beyond the 3-point arc and scored 16 points while Roa added 14 points in the opening 20 minutes. IVC outscored Delta, 25-12, in the second quarter, shooting 11-for-20 (49 percent). The 50 points allowed was the most by Delta in a half all season (previous high 46) and more than the Mustangs 49.1 points allowed average per game. 

In the third quarter, Delta's defense finally clamped down as the Mustangs outscored IVC, 13-6, cutting the lead to 56-46. 

The only thing keeping the game within reach in the first half was Payne's flawless shooting, making a perfect 8-for-8 from the field in the first half for 17 points. The rest of the team was 4-for-25, a lowly 16 percent. 

In the first quarter, the #2 and #3 defenses in the state, Irvine Valley and Delta, didn't resemble those stingy numbers. Instead, both teams played up-tempo with IVC applying a press that resulted in four field goals directly off Lasers steals. IVC led by as much as nine at 15-6, but Payne, who shot 4-for-4 from the field in the period, brough the Mustangs back. Her basket-and-one cut it to 22-21. However, Suruor drilled a 3 to give the Lasers a 25-21, first-quarter advantage. 

Just 32 seconds into the game, IVC's Katie Nguyen had scored five points, or two more than she scored in the entire quarterfinal win over Butte on Thursday. Nguyen never scored again, but led the Lasers for the second time at the tourney in rebounds with 11. 

For Delta, Jones, an All-State Second Team guard, and Rathen each scored nine points and Chelini seven. Sarah Ruiz added eight assists. 

The Mustangs will play the winner of today's other semifinal between North #2 Sierra and North #4 College of the Sequoias in the state championship game on Sunday at 1 p.m. Delta last played in the state final in losing to Pasadena City in the 2009 championship and it also made it as state runner-up at the 2006 finals v. champion Mt. San Antonio.

by Robert Lewis, for the CCCAA