SACRAMENTO — The Foothill High School boys basketball team woke the Dragons on Thursday night — and played them within an inch of their postseason lives.
The Cougars ultimately fell 66-62 to host Sacramento in the Northern California quarterfinals of the CIF State Division III championship. But it took the Dragons all but the last 3.5 seconds to put away the dogged No. 8 seed.
"I really think we had a chance to beat them," said Foothill coach Bill Elliott with the look of a guy who came up one number short on a winning lotto ticket. "We took them down to the last 30 seconds. What the heck. We're not even supposed to be in the game and we took the No. 1 team to the last 30 seconds."
Traditionally, these games are just a formality for Northern Section schools, one last ride in the van together before baseball and track season. Many great north state teams that have gotten to this point have walked away with double-digit beatings.
Apparently, nobody told Foothill, which had only one other section boys basketball title before this season.
From the opening tip, the Cougars matched Sacramento possession-for-possession, bottled up 6-foot-11 Dragons senior Robert Garrett, and looked right at home with the more physical style of play allowed by the officials — a pitfall for some past Northern Section teams in the state playoffs.
Foothill trailed 32-29 at the half, traded leads a few times in the third quarter, and entered the final eight-minute stretch locked up at 50-all.
"Our motto was to go after them and put some pressure on them," Elliott said. "I don't know if they'd been pressured much all year long."
The Cougars threw a trap on Garrett after the first two times he pivoted in for a spine-chilling dunk. Senior Foothill center Brock Whaley drew the tough assignment of bodying up on Garrett. The defense kept him relatively contained — the big man managed 20 points and 12 rebounds, but had to earn every inch he got.
"Brock did the best he could," Elliott said. "Other than winning the game, I couldn't be happier about the way we played tonight."
Devin Crisosto and Ryan Schmitz led the effort offensively. Crisosto downed 3 of 5 clutch jumpers in the third quarter to finish with 17 points and eight rebounds. Schmitz scored a team-high 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting, including a 3-pointer that gave Foothill a 40-38 lead with 4:19 left in the third quarter.
The bucket gave the Cougars their second lead of the half, to the approval of a lively student section imported via bus from Palo Cedro.
Foothill's Gabe Porter added nine points on 4-of-7 shooting, including a big 3-pointer in the fourth quarter to tie it at 59-all with three minutes to play. Porter's bomb helped erase a 5-0 slide by the Cougars who seemed to briefly lose focus, forced shots on three straight possessions and paid for it faster than you can say "timeout."
Still, Foothill had a chance to take the lead with 40 seconds to play off Schmitz's midcourt steal. He couldn't convert the breakaway layup through contact, though. Porter stole the ball on the next possession, but Crisosto's jumper wouldn't fall and Sacramento's Aaron Cameron drilled a pair of free throws with 3.5 seconds left to ice the game.
Whaley finished with eight points, 13 rebounds. Foothill's Dreu Depaoli added eight points and three rebounds.
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