March 5, 2010

By Chhun Sun

And then it stopped.

All of a sudden, the Bulldogs saw a defense that seemingly had hands like moving tree branches and the once-friendly rim wasn’t so nice anymore. But the Turlock players managed to come back from a double-digit deficit late in the game to make the top-seeded team in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs sweat, only to watch their first trip to the NBA arena in two decades conclude in a 70-66 disappointment to Franklin High of Elk Grove in front of hundreds of fans -- with a good chunk of them making the 100-mile trip from Turlock.

“But we fought,” coach Doug Cornfoot said.

The fourth-seeded Bulldogs certainly did. With 4:09 seconds left, they allowed a game in which they once controlled become a 62-50 disadvantage after Franklin’s lightning quick guard Michael Rosaroso -- a three-year starter -- was either driving to the hoop for a bucket or dishing to a teammate for a score. It wasn’t over, though.

Turlock pushed back to a 69-66 deficit with 21.6 seconds left, but senior guard Eric Wetzel’s 3-pointer on the left wing was off. And that was how the Bulldogs’ first trip to Arco Arena in 17 years came to a close.

At the same time, the season’s not over.

The Bulldogs (24-6) still have the NorCal Championships, with the seedings and brackets coming out Sunday. They will likely have to go on the road when that tournament begins Tuesday night.

Back at Arco Arena, the Turlock players started the semifinal game unable to miss many shots from the 3-point line. In fact, they nailed 7 out of 10 treys -- with two apiece from Anthony Hubbard and sophomore reserve Alek Carlson -- to own a 36-26 halftime edge, somewhat unexpected against the Franklin Wildcats, last season’s Section runner-ups.

“We were knocking shots,” Turlock’s Travis Souza said. “That’s one of the things we do: We knock down shots.”

The Wildcats just watched for the most part.

“I think in the first half,” said Franklin coach Jesse Formaker, whose team improved to 26-4 and will play in Saturday night‘s Section title game at Arco Arena, “we came out a little passive that we were nervous enough to allow them to get open shots. So we didn’t play very aggressive.”

Yeah, things got really tough for the Bulldogs after halftime. The defense stepped up and forced the Bulldogs into bad shots, highlighted by the fact that they missed six out of seven 3-point attempts to end the game. It was also tough because Rosaroso -- Franklin’s best player -- became almost impossible to stop.

The senior sparked a 10-3 outburst to begin the final half and cut the once double-digit deficit to only 41-37, with him scoring eight of the points to finish with a game-high 24. Every time he had the ball, Rosaroso would use his speed to get past Turlock defenders. The Wildcats rallied and had a 12-point lead with 4 minutes left.

Guard Anthony Hubbard (22 points) tried to bring the Bulldogs back with three hard-earned layups and a pair of free throws in the final minute to close the gap to 68-66. Rosaroso then hit one of two from the line before Turlock’s Wetzel -- who had 11 points to Souza’s 15 -- missed a game-tying 3-pointer with about 10 seconds to go.

“I wanted to get my team back in the game,” Hubbard said.

He’s only a junior, so he’ll have plenty of opportunities to do that next season. And perhaps help the Bulldogs make it back to Arco for the Section playoffs.

 

 

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