Rally in Last 2 Minutes Gives Taft Unlikely Win Over Chatsworth

Yogi, move over.

Taft High forward Miguel Carrillo practically had single-handedly destroyed Chatsworth in the game’s final seconds, yet words escaped him the way the lead escaped the opposition.

“It isn’t over until, well, I don’t know,” Carrillo said, revealing a toothy smile.

Explanations were difficult to come by Friday as Taft mounted a frenetic fourth-quarter rally to edge Chatsworth, 68-67, in a Northwest Valley Conference basketball game at Taft.

Trailing, 62-53, with 2 minutes 13 seconds remaining, Taft (12-3, 4-0 in league play) pulled a rabbit out of a hat, or something like that.

“It was a miracle--we did it with mirrors or something,” Taft Coach Jim Woodard said. “I don’t know what happened.”

Here’s a clue: Taft scored 15 points over the final 1:40 and Carrillo scored the team’s final eight points.

The rally began when sophomore guard Lamont Magee scored on a fast break and added a three-point bomb the next trip up the floor to cut the Chatsworth lead to 62-58 with 1:24 left. The tempo only escalated from there.

Chatsworth (11-5, 3-1) turned the ball over on its next possession--the Chancellors wilted under the Taft trap and committed six turnovers in the quarter--and Adam James (11 points) made a pair of free throws to pare the lead to two.

Kevin Gold (16 points) was fouled by Carrillo while scoring inside, and Gold completed the three-point play to extend the Chatsworth lead to 65-60 with 1:02 left.

Which is precisely when Carrillo found his stroke.

Gold returned the favor and fouled Carrillo after a basket with 51 seconds left, and Carrillo converted the free throw to again bring Taft within two. With 35 seconds left, Ken Manor (11 points) missed a pair of free throws--Chatsworth missed five of its last six--and Carrillo cashed in with a three-point rainbow to give Taft a 66-65 lead. Taft last led, 6-5, in the first quarter.

Chatsworth point guard Chris Dunbar was fouled by Taft’s Terry Prince (five rebounds in the fourth quarter) with 16 seconds remaining but missed the front end of the one-and-one. Taft controlled the rebound and Carrillo, who finished with a game-high 21 points, was fouled in the backcourt.

With 12 seconds left, Carrillo’s first free throw bounced high off the rim, off the glass and rattled through, and he made the second cleanly for a 68-65 lead. Dunbar and Gold missed off-balance three-point attempts before Brady Mertes (17 points) scored inside at the buzzer.

“We never gave up,” Carrillo said. “That last three minutes were our three minutes.”

Indeed, and then some. Chatsworth scored just three times from the field in the final four minutes and turned the ball over five times in that stretch.

“I thought it was over,” Woodard said. “It was just a matter of how much they were going to embarrass us by.”