Thrilling Late Basket Locks in NorCal Tournament Spot For Hoopa Boys

We’ve joined forces with Ray Hamill of HumboldtSports.com to bring you local sports. We’ll be sharing a teaser and a link to his stories here for easy access. Click through to his site for the latest in local action, but here’s a snippet about Hoopa’s exciting game last night:

John Smith hit the winning basket with just five seconds remaining, as the Hoopa Valley boys defeated Head-Royce 46-45 on Monday night and secured a place in next week’s NorCal tournament.

The Warriors led for much of the game, but saw the advantage slip away late as the No. 4 seeded Jayhawks rallied in the fourth quarter.

Trailing by one in the final seconds, however, the Warriors got an inbound pass to George Navarro, who was immediately double teamed.

Navarro then kicked it out to a wide-open Smith, who made no mistake, hitting nothing but net for the go-ahead score.

“It was a huge, huge basket,” Hoopa head coach Tyler Mitchell said.

With the win, the No. 5 Warriors advance to Wednesday night’s North Coast Section Division-V semifinal against top seed Stuart Hall.

To read the rest of this story by Ray Hamill, go to HumboldtSports.com.