By Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
ANTIOCH, Calif. - When shooting motions and play diagrams failed, John Woolery had only one alternative.
Chest thumps.
The Antioch High boys basketball coach constantly exalted his team with fists thumped to his own chest in the fourth quarter and the host Panthers responded with a big and gritty 60-55 Bay Valley Athletic League win over a scrappy Pittsburg squad on Thursday night.
The Pirates, in fact, forced Antioch into 29 turnovers with fierce fullcourt pressure.
On top of that, Antioch missed 18 free throws on just 23 of 41, yet still pulled out the game behind 19 points from Tim Williams, 17 by Calvin Douglas and 11 from Emmanuel Bradford.
"We showed a lot of heart and toughness," said Woolery, a first-year coach at Antioch who assisted at Santa Clara University, where he played after a fine prep career at Fairfax (Los Angeles). "It wasn't real pretty but Pittsburg never stopped coming at us. We held them off. It was a good win."
Considering Pittsburg came into the game 10-2 and had rolled up big comeback wins against California (San Ramon), Oaks Christian (Westlake Village), Ventura and Amador Valley (Pleasanton), this was a very good win indeed.
The Pirates (10-3, 2-1 BVAL), coached by former Fremont (Oakland) coach Clinton Williams, are relentless, athletic and fearless.
They are balanced as well as they showed Thursday.
Charles Barnes, a rugged 6-foot-2, 205 pound senior, led the team with 12 points and 14 rebounds, Steven Sullivan, a 5-9 junior sharpshooter, added 11 and D'Marcus Frost, a long 6-6 senior post, added 10 points and 12 rebounds. Erick Dargan, a talented 6-foot sophomore guard, was also solid with nine points and five steals.
But Pittsburg couldn't overcome a very poor shooting performance from the field (21 of 61, 34 percent) and even a worse performance at the free throw line (6 of 18, 33 percent).
"We just couldn't put the ball in the basket," Williams said. "And we didn't get any breaks from the refs."
Indeed, there was a huge discrepancy at the free-throw line.
Antioch (9-5, 3-1) took 23 more free throws, but didn't exactly take full advantage. Williams, the Panthers' big threat, was saddled with foul trouble throughout. The 6-8 senior, who has already signed to St. Mary's College, scored his game-high totals in just 19 minutes.
"That makes this all the more impressive," Douglas said. "We got a lot of contributions all around."
The Panthers have been a largely two-man gang, with Douglas, a 6-3 point guard, averaging 24.0 points per game and Williams at 22.2.
But Bradford, a 5-10 junior and first-year varsity player, played strong and converted three of four free throws down the stretch. DeAndre Lancaster, a 6-4 senior picked up the slack when Williams was on the bench, with eight points and 10 rebounds.
Pittsburg jumped out of the gates to leads of 6-0 and 9-2, before Williams, still only about 60 percent with a badly sprained right ankle, tied it at 9-9 with a three-pointer.
But the Pirates took back control with a 9-2 run, highlighted by a 3-pointer from Sullivan and a fastbreak slam dunk by Frost after a nice feed from Barnes.
Pittsburg had several chances to extend the lead to double digits but just couldn't execute in the halfcourt or hits its many fastbreak opportunities.
"We normally make those shots," Williams said. "For some reason we just rushed our shots and they didn't fall."
Said Barnes: "Shots didn't fall and we didn't execute. Bottom line we didn't play very well."
Antioch took its first lead, 28-25, on a 3-point play by Douglas with 7:06 left in the third quarter. After Williams hit two free throws, Pittsburg's Joe Simpson converted a free throw and fastbreak layup and Frost powered in a deuce, to tie it at 30-30.
But responded with an 8-0 run, keyed by putbacks by Ver'Ron Busby and Douglas and a nifty reverse layup by Bradford. The Panthers would never trail again, though Pittsburg made several runs.
"(Pittsburg) comes at you hard and they don't let up," Douglas said. "We made a lot of turnovers and mistakes but made some good adjustments at halftime. This was a big win and gave us a lot of confidence after losing to De La Salle."
Antioch dropped a decisive 68-43 game to De La Salle (Concord), the state's No. 9 team, last week. The Panthers were really never in that one.
"We learned a lot from that loss," said Douglas, who Woolery said is one of the top five guards in Northern California. "Just like we'll learn from this game. We'll do a lot better against both teams next time."
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