Central Valley erased a 13-point third-quarter deficit on its way to defeating crosstown-rival Ceres High 43-40 in junior-varsity boys basketball on Friday at Phil de la Porte Gymnasium.
Bulldog point guard Ismael Ontiveros' potential game-tying shot from midcourt bounced off the front of the rim as time expired.
"I have a lot of faith in this team," Hawks head coach Jordan Dickson said. "This game showed our kids have the heart to fight through adversity. It's a great learning experience to play in a pressure situation like that."
Central Valley improved to 18-1 on the year and 5-1 in the Western Athletic Conference standings.
Ceres High dropped to 11-4 and 4-2.
David Glukhovskiy led the Hawks in scoring with a game-high 16 points.
Harinder Sidhu, Oso Fregoso, Wilbert Soriano and Jaspreet Singh added 15, five, four and three points, respectively.
Central Valley shot 23 percent (15 of 64) from the field, 19 percent (5 of 26) from 3-point range and 50 percent (8 of 16) from the free-throw line for the game.
Wyatt Ogden led the Bulldogs in scoring with 14 points.
Jeff Lemus, Austin Crain and Marcellus Boykins added nine, seven and four points, respectively.
Marcellus Boykins and Jordan McGrath finished with three points apiece.
Ceres High shot 25 percent (14 of 55) from the floor, 11 percent (2 of 18) from 3-point range and 58 percent (7 of 12) from the charity stripe.
Central Valley trailed 24-17 at halftime.
Ceres High's lead ballooned to 13 points in the third quarter. The Bulldogs scored most of their points inside. The Hawks struggled to make shots from the outside.
"We haven't been in that situation before," Dickson said. "It was new for the kids. For whatever reason, I felt like we were in control even though we were down. We have a lot offensive weapons."
Tied at 38-all, Central Valley took its first lead of the second half when Glukhovskiy buried a 3-pointer from the left wing with 4:34 to play.
Down 41-38, Ceres High cut the deficit to one on Ogden's triple at the 3:17 mark.
Glukhovskiy converted a pair of foul shots with 2:39 left in regulation.
David scored eight points in the fourth quarter. He mustered just three points in the middle periods.
"David's a special player," Dickson said. "He got hurt two separate times in the game and wouldn't let me take him out. He's a fighter. He's a leader on the court."
Neither team scored during the final two-plus minutes of the rivalry contest.
Ontiveros nearly sent the game into overtime.
"Ceres High played a great game," Dickson said. "We would have had a tough time winning in overtime had he made that shot. They would have had the momentum."
Central Valley will battle visiting Patterson today and compete at El Capitan on Friday. Ceres High will host El Capitan today and Livingston on Friday.
