Basketball

River Valley High School

Falcons Boys Basketball 

Max Preps--Overall 18-10/League 10-2

The last couple of months have been filled with basketball games.  Seth is very lucky to have so much support from family at his games.  He had a great season and was able to contribute a lot to his team.

River Valley boys squeak out victory over Inderkum

It was a rough shooting night for the River Valley High boys basketball team, but the Falcons were able to find a way to grind out a 69-63 Tri-County Conference victory over Inderkum on Friday night in Sacramento.

River Valley coach Mark Wright said the team received a tremendous boost off the bench from Seth Chatfield and Sukhprit Sooch in the fourth quarter with Chatfield grabbing eight key rebounds.  

Karanvir Takhar was River Valley's leading scorer with 19 points and Rohin Basi added 18 points. Josh Dhatt did his usual all-around damage with 16 points, nine rebounds, five steals and three blocks.

The Falcons improved to 9-1 in the TCC and are half game up on River City (8-1) in the TCC standings. RV (17-8 overall) hosts rival Yuba City on Wednesday before ending the regular season in a showdown for first place against River City on Friday, Feb. 13.

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Falcons top Honkers to move closer to TCC title

One team was playing for a potential conference title and the other was playing for nothing more than pride, but that didn't stop Yuba City and River Valley High's boys basketball teams from putting on a show on Wednesday night.

The game had a little bit of everything — momentum swings, dunks, big shots and clutch defense — and in the end, it all came down to the final possession.

However, the Falcons had just enough to outlast the Honkers as a balanced scoring attack offset a monster game from Yuba City standout Angel Hernandez and propelled River Valley to the cusp of the program's first Tri-County Conference title

Four Falcons scored in double figures and the Honkers' desperation heave clanked off the rim as the buzzer sounded, lifting River Valley to a hard-fought 67-65 victory before a raucous crowd at Falcon Gymnasium.

It was the eighth straight win by River Valley and sets up a key showdown on Friday night in West Sacramento against River City, where the winner will take home the TCC crown.

"I felt like it was a total team effort. We could have done a better job on the defensive end early, but when the game was on the line, we came up with some big stops," River Valley coach Mark Wright said. "It keeps the momentum going for us. Obviously, with the way things are set up in league now, Friday is the big game."

The Falcons (18-8 overall, 10-1 TCC) couldn't find the basket early on Wednesday night as they shot a horrendous 2 of 20 from the field in the first quarter and the Honkers (12-14, 4-7) took advantage by taking a 17-7 lead after eight minutes of play.

River Valley finally got its offense going in the second, and behind 12 points from senior Karanvir Takhar, the Falcons outscored Yuba City 22-16 to trim the lead to 33-29 at the break.

Takhar and Rohin Basi scored seven points each in the third period and the Falcons shook off the hot hand of Hernandez by outscoring the Honkers 21-16 to take a slim 50-49 lead heading into the fourth.

River Valley stretched the lead to as many as eight in the final period, but Yuba City kept chipping away and cut the lead to two with 36 seconds remaining.

Twice the Honkers had a chance to tie or take the lead late, but both times River Valley's defense came up huge by forcing turnovers, setting up a wild finish.

The Falcons could have put the game away with a pair of free throws with 5.5 seconds left, but missed the front end of a one-and-one and Yuba City grabbed the rebound.

With no timeouts, the Honkers rushed the ball up court to point guard Malachi Wharry, who took a deep 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded. The ball had the right trajectory, but bounced off the backboard and rim as time expired before River Valley's student section stormed the court in celebration.

"We've been there before throughout the season and we've made runs to get back in games," Wright said of River Valley's slow start. "We just told them to relax and keep playing. In these games it's easy to come in with too much energy. We were amped up a little early and our shots were long, but we did a good job in the second quarter of settling down and we started making shots."

While River Valley earned the win, the player of the game was no doubt Hernandez, who converted three 3-point plays and knocked down three 3-pointers en route to a game-high 38 points.

"We ran a lot of different defenses at him in the second half to try and slow him down, but he really had it going tonight," Wright said. "He was the best player on the floor."

Takhar led River Valley with 21 points, seven rebounds and five assists, while Josh Dhatt filled up the stat sheet once again with 15 points, 10 rebounds, eight steals five assists and a block.

Basi added 14 points, Parker Lowe scored six big points in the fourth while finishing with 12, and point guard Karlon Parks contributed five points and six rebounds in the victory.

"I'm extremely proud with the way we played. We weren't just going to lay down and we had a chance to win the game two or three times. Unfortunately it didn't go our way," Honkers coach Mamo Rafiq said. "You have to give it up for River Valley. They've had a really great season. Basketball is a game of runs and they had a few more runs than us."

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We finished this basketball season by going to Chico to watch Aaron play in the annual Pleasant Valley Alumni game.  It was fun for him to get together with his brother and old friends who all played  basketball together.