Simi Valley Wins on Last Wager, 61-60

It was born of necessity, but the Simi Valley High strategy worked to perfection.

So what if it was by accident.

Simi Valley was forced to foul Cedar City High in the final minutes here Friday night in the Sundevil basketball tournament at Eldorado High. The Redmen of Utah obliged by missing the front end of five one-and-one free throws.

The result was a 61-60 Simi Valley victory as Pioneer forward Shawn DeLaittre scored the winning basket off of an offensive rebound with one second left in the game.

“What’s that saying around here? I’d rather be lucky than good,” Simi Valley Coach Bob Hawking said. “Well, tonight we weren’t all that good, but we were lucky.

“We seem to usually find some way to win and that’s one of the characteristics of a good team.”

The key to this victory was a statistic that Hawking was unaware of at the time his team resorted to fouling: Cedar City is notoriously bad at shooting free throws.

“This is nothing new,” Redmen Coach Steve Hodson said after the game. “We’re shooting less than 60% from the line this season.”

The Pioneers trailed by five, 54-49, with only four minutes left in the game, but were able to rally behind two clutch plays by DeLaittre.

The 6-4 sophomore scored a three-point play off of a nice inbounds pass from Todd Johnson to tie the game at 54 with 3:14 remaining.

Then, with the clock ticking down, he rebounded a missed jumper by Mike Hankins and banked in the game-winning shot.

“We wanted either Hankins or Travis Bice to take the shot from the sideline area, with Shawn or Don staying in the blocks for the rebound,” Hawking said. “The ball bounced right to him.”

DeLaittre led the Pioneers in scoring with 19 points. He had 11 rebounds.

Sophomore center Don MacLean turned in another solid performance, scoring 15 points and collecting a game-high 19 rebounds. Johnson, making his first start at forward in six games, had 11 assists.

Cedar City (4-3) was led by center Richard Barton, who had 20 points, and guard Curtis Jones, who had 17.

Simi Valley will conclude play in the tournament today at 3 p.m. when it meets Bonanza High of Las Vegas for fifth place.

CEDAR CITY--Nielson 8; Greenhalgh 2; R. Barton 20; Jones 17; Weaver 3; J. Barton 10.

SIMI VALLEY--DeLaittre 19; Johnson 3; MacLean 15; Hankins 10; Gates 10; Jenner 2; Bice 2.