REDDING, Calif. – On a night where the Shasta College men's basketball team struggled offensively, the Knights regrouped to edge the College of the Siskiyous Eagles 71-68 Wednesday.
The Knights trailed by as many as five late in the second half but pulled it together in the final two minutes to improve to 2-0 in Golden Valley Conference play for the second straight year.
With the game tied at 66, Shasta sophomore Jordan Spaschak made both ends of a 1-and-1, and followed it up by drawing a charge to give the Knights the ball back. Grant Smith came up with a key offensive rebound and was fouled with 30 seconds left, sending him to the line for two free throws. Smith knocked down both but they were neutralized by Siskiyous' inside bucket to make it a three-point game with 15 seconds remaining. The Eagles (2-15, 0-2 GVC) were forced to foul Spaschak, who split a pair of free throws, and Alex Velazquez's game-tying 3-pointer was off the mark, giving the Knights the victory.
"We didn't come out with very good energy and it's tough to change that in the middle of the game, but we were fortunate that they played hard enough when they needed to so we could sneak that one out," Shasta College coach Kele Fitzhugh said.
The Knights (11-8, 2-0 GVC) were playing without leading scorer Kellen Gerig, who twisted his ankle in practice earlier in the week. The void was felt early on as Shasta made up for its slow start with Zach Lowe burying back-to-back 3-pointers to fuel an 8-0 run late in the first half to go into the break trailing 32-31.
"You never know how a team will respond when you don't have a guy like Kellen," Fitzhugh said. "He's a great athlete that can rebound, block shots, and he has a great motor. On nights we don't have full energy and don't help each other, the defense doesn't look so good so you try to make up for it with offense. When you're pressuring offense, you don't end up shooting as well."
The second half featured seven lead changes as neither team led by more than five points. Shasta used a 7-0 run to gain the momentum it needed down the stretch as Blake Trent dropped in a putback, Hunter Johnson knocked down a 3 from the wing, and Trent's steal led to a fastbreak layup for Smith for a 62-60 lead with 5:29 left.
Shasta lost the lead only one more time on a Velazquez layup but Johnson cleaned up his own miss on the following possession to tie it at 66 with 1:57 remaining – one of two crucial second chance opportunities for the Knights in the final two minutes. Shasta, which shot 7 for 12 from the charity stripe in the game, made 5 of 6 free throws the rest of the way to seal the victory.
"Once again, they gave fight when they had to," Fitzhugh said. "I'm proud of them for how they played the last two minutes. That game could have gone either way."
Trent and Johnson tied for the game-high with 18 points each. Lowe scored 13 points to go with nine rebounds, Smith added nine points and Spaschak contributed eight points, nine rebounds and seven assists.