BOYS’ BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Helix’s Lake Sinks Shots to Top Grossmont, 65-64

Lloyd Lake sank both free throws in a one-and-one situation with five seconds left to lift the Helix Highlanders to a 65-64 basketball victory over rival Grossmont.

Lake, the county’s sixth-leading scorer who finished with a season-high 29 points, had been only moderately successful from the line (60 of 101) entering Tuesday’s Grossmont 3-A League game but made nine of 10 in the second half and 11 of 14 overall.

Helix improved to 11-5, 1-1.

Grossmont (11-6, 0-1) led by one after each of the first three quarters and by five with 4:30 left when Mike Kingsley connected with Vince Clark on a 35-foot lob pass on a sideline out-of-bounds play.

The Foothillers also came within inches of winning, but Alae Jamchi’s 35-foot desperation shot at the buzzer hit off the back center of the rim.

“(When Jamchi shot) my heart stopped for a second,” Lake said. “I thought it was going down.”

Lake’s clutch free throws negated two by Grossmont’s Ryan Kataoka with nine seconds left and a terrific fourth-quarter performance by Kinsgley, who scored 13 of his team-high 23 points in the final period.

“I was a little nervous,” Lake said. “In the past, I had missed a few free throws under pressure. But since I had made so many early I had some confidence going.”

Lake was sent to the line on a tripping call on Kingsley at midcourt. It was Kingsley’s fifth foul, but the play happened so quickly not even Lake was sure who would get whistled.

“I wasn’t really sure,” Lake admitted. “I thought it was on him, but you never really know.”

On going to the line, Lake added, “I didn’t even get excited. We hadn’t won anything yet. I knew I had to make the free throws first.”

Of significance is the fact that Grossmont’s Kingsley is 5-9, Kataoka 5-5 and Jamchi 5-7, and that 6-6 Tim Donahue, the only Foothiller over 6-1, fouled out with 4:52 left.

Helix’s Andreal Climon, who sat out nearly the entire second and third quarters because of a lingering ankle injury from football, played a key role in disqualifying Donahue, who scored seven of his 11 points in the third quarter.

Climon had seven points and six rebounds in the first quarter as Donahue picked up his first two fouls, then added eight points and six rebounds in the final six minutes.

“We knew if we got it inside we were going to draw fouls,” Climon said.

Helix Coach John Singer agreed: “I thought the difference was in the last four minutes we got the ball inside.”

Grossmont took twice as many shots in the first half but managed only a 25-24 lead. Kingsley and Clark, the Foothiller’s two top scorers, were a combined four for 18 from the field.

Helix held a 24-14 rebounding edge in the first half and increased that to 44-22 by the end.

Lake did not play in the first 3:50 because he had missed a practice being out of town with his mother over the weekend. Nonetheless, he had a game-high 15 rebounds and increased his league-leading scoring average to 20.7.