Northwood holds on and edges Portola in wild PCL game that goes to the wire

Northwood’s Aditya Sheth (No. 11) and Justin Gee (No. 21) defend against Portola’s Makai Brown Wednesday night. (Photo: OC Sports Zone, Tim Burt).

Northwood’s boys basketball team held on for a much needed Pacific Coast League victory, defeating Portola 53-52 Wednesday night at Northwood.

The Timberwolves (14-6, 2-3) were off more than two weeks due to COVID-protocol until Monday, when they dropped a 59-49 PCL game against Woodbridge.

But Wednesday in front of the home fans, Northwood held on in a hotly-contested game that went down to the final second.

“We will take it, however you can in league,” said Northwood Coach Christian Manalo. “Everything is going to be a dogfight, every team is very evenly matched and everyone plays hard. There are a lot of surprises here and there in this league and I think everybody is beatable, us included.

“It’s not going to be easy and tonight showed it It’s a game of runs. They made their’s and we made our’s and it came down to the last shot.”

Northwood was led by Justin Gee, who had 16 points and Ryan Abaye who had nine points. Portola (10-7, 4-2) was led by Colin Huang, who had 20 points and Devin Daniel, who scored 16 points.

Northwood led by six at halftime and by one after three quarters. Portola jumped to an early 3-point lead at the start of the final stanza.

The teams traded leads in the last two minutes. Gee put Northwood ahead 53-51 on a 3-pointer with 41 seconds left.

Portola tried to tie it up but was unable to convert on two tries. Then with six seconds left, Abaye was fouled but missed the front end of a one-and-one. Portola rebounded the ball and quickly advanced the ball to Huang, who drove and was fouled with one second to play. Huang appeared to be injured and was on the floor for awhile before getting up and walking to the bench. But the officials ruled he couldn’t return.

So Ryan Chu was used on the free throws. Chu made the first to cut the lead to 53-52 but was unable to make the second and Northwood celebrated the win.

“He (Huang) cramped up and they said he couldn’t go shoot because we had to have the medical personnel come out onto the floor,” said Portola Coach Brian Smith. “My beef with that is that the kid was up before play was ready to go because there was a delay, but I guess that’s the rule and if somebody has to come out onto the floor they have to sit out.

“He got what we wanted; we wanted to get him to the basket. He got fouled. It didn’t come down to that last free throw at all though. We let them get ahead way too early in the beginning. We didn’t start well and that’s what did it for us, that first quarter.”

Manalo said Gee has made many clutch shots.

“He’s been our senior leader and he’s been the foundation of what we’ve been doing,” Manalo said.

Northwood also got strong efforts from Aditya Sheth (eight points, two rebounds) and Diogo Vieira (eight points, five rebounds).

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