Locke hits game-winning shot and lifts Northwood past Portola 40-39, keeping Timberwolves tied for first in PCL

Northwood’s Seth Locke advances the ball past Portola’s Jeffrey Chen in Friday’s game.

It was a slow start to Friday’s Pacific Coast League boys basketball game with only 31 points scored in the first half between Northwood and Portola.

Portola led 16-15 at the break.

But it was an exciting finish as Northwood erased a 13-point deficit to defeat Portola 40-39 to remain tied atop the Pacific Coast League standings with Beckman in front of a big and enthusiastic crowd at Portola.

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“It means a lot to these guys to bounce back from Wednesday night after taking a beating from Woodbridge and pull this one out being down 12 or 13 going into the fourth,” said Northwood Coach Yousof Etemadi.

“We were relentless and tried sticking with the plan and eventually it will come, and we got a win, we stole a win tonight.. That’s all you can say.”

Northwood (13-12, 6-2) was without two starters, Trent Harper and Amit Flint with injuries.

The Timberwolves got back into the game by outscoring Portola 21-9 in the fourth quarter.

Shandon Sharifi and Seth Locke led the comeback. Sharifi scored 16 points and made two 3-pointers to start the fourth quarter.

Locke, who scored 14 points, hit a two-point basket with 9.6 seconds left to give the Timberwolves a 40-39 lead.

Portola (13-13, 4-4) called timeout and then called another timeout when it got into the front court, but the Bulldogs turned the ball over under the basket with 1.6 seconds left. Locke was fouled and missed a free throw as time expired.

Locke also hit a 3-pointer with 1:11 left to cut Portola’s lead to 39-38.

“It was a tight possession, we just needed to get a shot off and I happened to be the one shooting it and it went in,” Locke said of the game winner. “I’m a senior veteran and they were looking for me to shoot it and I had to put it up and it went in.”

Mohsen Hashemi led Portola with 19 points. Jeffrey Chen had eight points for the Bulldogs, who remain in third place in the PCL.

Portola Coach Brian Smith was hoping the Bulldogs could send the big turnout of Bulldog fans home with a victory.

“This one was tough,” Smith said. “It’s the first time in the history of the school we’ve had this type of environment and crowd, so we wanted obviously to come out on the winning edge but kudos to Northwood for hitting shots down the stretch when they needed to.

“They totally dictated the tempo. That’s not the way we want to play. We don’t like to score in the 30’s. They controlled the ball quite a bit. We had our moments and we just didn’t take advantage of them but everything this season has been a learning process. I’m getting another gray hair because of it. The environment was great. I was so happy the kids came out like they did and the ASB did a great job and our band has been awesome.”

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com