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By RICH GREENE DN Sports Editor CHICO — The Spartans shut down Bren Haley for two and a- half quarters, but the Pleasant Valley star found a way to burn Red Bluff in the end. Haley poured in 15 points in the fourth quarter and Pleasant Valley ended Red Bluff 's season with a 63-55 win, Friday night in the Division II boys basketball semifinals. While Haley left the game in the last minute with an ankle injury, he had already done enough damage. Haley asserted himself with a pair of triples during a back-and- forth fourth quarter and sparked a Pleasant Valley comeback. After Haley had erupted for nine points in the first 3:15 of the game, the Spartan defense held him without a basket until the fourth quarter. They also held Pleasant Val- ley's key post player Jaycob Velasco without a point in the first. Meanwhile, behind Cody Gappa the Spartans had left half- time with a three-point lead. But in the third quarter, Haley got his teammates involved and that included Velasco, who scored four of his five field goals in the frame as the Vikings erased the Spartan lead. Never a team to give up Red Bluff kept coming at the Vikings in the fourth quarter with big buckets from Trevor Miller, Gappa and Trevor Capik. Each time however, Haley had an answer, on his way to a 26- point night. "We got good shots in the fourth quarter, but stuff started rimming out," coach Stan Twitchell said of the difference that let Pleasant Valley pull away. The Vikings head coach Randy Gilzean said his team might have underestimated the Spartans after beating them by 17 points two weeks ago. Gilzean knew better. "Stan does such a great job with them. He gets them to play hard," Gilzean said. The Spartans did just that Fri- day night, they matched Pleasant Valley 29-29 on the glass and out-shot the Vikings from the free throw line, but it just wasn't enough to overcome Haley's night. "He's a really good player. I really credit him," Twitchell said. Trevor Miller led the Spartans with 15 points. Grant Blaser and Cody Gappa each had 11 and Trevor Capik added eight. The Spartans finished 12-15 on the season. Sports 1B Weekend Feb. 27-28, 2010 Weekend Sat — D-I Soccer Championship — West Valley at Corning, Noon Sat — Day 2 NSCIF Wrestling Championships in Redding, 10 a.m. Olympic coverage all weekend on NBC, MSNBC, USA, CNBC Sun — Olympics gold medal hockey game, Noon, NBC Sun — Shelby American, 11 a.m., FOX Sun — NBA — Clippers at Kings, 6 p.m., CSNCA Haley stymies Spartans Daily News photo by Rich Greene Bren Haley passes in front of Red Bluff's Trevor Miller. Vikings end Lady Spartans season By RICH GREENE DN Sports Editor CHICO — The Lady Spartans weren't short on effort, but they were short on defense, Friday night, in a 59-30 loss to Pleasant Valley in the Division II girls bas- ketball semifinal. Meanwhile the Lady Vikings were getting scor- ing from everyone on their roster. Four of their five starters each scored a pair of buckets to pace Pleasant Valley to a 18-7 first quarter lead. From there the Vikings just kept expanding the lead despite the Spartans efforts. "Our intensity and effort was a whole lot better than our Paradise game," Red Bluff coach Kathy Brandt said. The Spartans played Pleasant Valley even on the boards, with each team grabbing 26 rebounds. Alana Hinkston was a force in the first half and fin- ished with eight points and six rebounds. Morgan Weaver picked up the slack in the second half with seven points and six rebounds. Lottie Jones added seven points and five rebounds. But the Vikings had too many weapons. Kiley Mansfield did her usual damage, leading Pleasant Valley with 11 points and six boards, but she got a lot of help. In all 12 Vikings scored at least one point to earn Pleasant Valley a trip to the D-II championship. Red Bluff ends its season 6-21. Daily News photo by Rich Greene Alana Hinkston looks for a pass in Friday night's game. SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — In the San Francis- co Bay area, it's all about the bridges. That includes the San Francisco Giants and the pitchers who bridge the gap between the starters and the closer — the middle reliev- ers and setup men. The Giants have two left-handers who fit that role, veteran Jeremy Affeldt and rapidly rising youngster Dan Runzler. And Affeldt, 30, has taken Runzler, 25, under his wing. "I sort of follow him around like a puppy dog," Runzler said. Runzler earned praise from manager Bruce Bochy and pitching coach Dave Righetti by appearing in 11 late-season games in 2009, giving up just one earned run in 8 2/3 innings and striking out 11. One of those came in his major-league debut on Sept. 4, when he struck out Milwaukee's Jody Gerut on three straight fastballs to end the sixth inning and help preserve a 3-2 victory. Runzler, a ninth-round draft pick in 2007, had stops at every level in 2009 — Class A Augusta and San Jose, Double-A Con- necticut and Triple-A Fres- no before joining the big club. He was back at it while throwing batting practice earlier this week. Bochy said the 6-foot-4, 230- pound Runzler "was filthy." "It was a complete over- match at this stage of spring training," Bochy said. "When a guy is throwing 95 mph and has a slider like he has, it was pretty impres- sive what he was doing out there . . . we plan on him fit- ting into the bullpen real nice." The key this spring, Runzler said, is for him to be prepared when he arrives at the ballpark, make sure he's in good shape and "try to be like a sponge, soaking up everything I can. This is my first big-league spring training. I need to watch film and ask a lot of ques- tions. "I don't care what role I'm in right now. I just want to pitch and get hitters out." Affeldt, who shared the major-league lead in holds with 33 last season, acknowledged he doesn't have all the answers but is willing to do what he can to help Runzler. "It helps to know your role and this club does a good job establishing roles," Affeldt said. "I tell him to keep studying, trust his stuff and trust his catch- er, you know, 'it's your career, take ownership.' " Affeldt began his career as a starter, floated between starting and relieving — a "staliever," he called it — then became a full-time reliever with Kansas City, Colorado and Cincinnati. He said he had a lot of help along the way from veteran pitchers. "You have to try to do the same thing every time out to be prepared when you go into a game," he said. "Be aggressive, make sure your fastball is ready, than mix in the other pitch- es. "It (holding the lead) has its share of pressure. I pitched in the World Series, so I thought that I felt all the pressure you can experi- ence. I've had a lot of fun." Giants' Affeldt takes Runzler under his wing Paradise drops Corning 66-55 By JEFF LARSON MediaNews Group PARADISE — Friday's Corning-Paradise High boys basketball game demonstrat- ed the strength of the Eastern Athletic League. The fourth-seeded Bob- cats from the EAL hosted the Cardinals of the Northern Athletic League, and it was Paradise which was the aggressor essentially all night, leading to a 66-55 victory over fifth-seeded Corning in the quarterfi- nals of the Northern Section Division III playoffs. The first half was close, with seven lead changes combined through the first and second quarters. However, Paradise (8-18) scored a 9-0 run to begin the third period, capped by both a Sam Dixon jumper and Dominic Parisi reverse layup off assists from point guard Jonathan Breevaart, pushing a modest 30-26 halftime lead to 39-26 at the four- minute mark of the third. Breevaart, who totaled five assists, three points and two steals in the victory, said his role was mag- nified without fellow guard Zach Saylors. "Without Zach I thought I needed to be more of a distributor. When I get to the paint I see them, and they finish," he said. Dixon and junior center Austin Thayer were the main recipients of Breevaart's pinpoint passing. Thayer recorded a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Dixon notched 16 points, includ- ing a putback at the 5:33 mark of the fourth quar- ter to give Paradise what at the time was its biggest advantage of the game, 54-38. "Sam and I work off each other. I would get a rebound, he would post up," Thayer said. "We were just back-to-back assisting each other and that's how we took advantage of our size." Down 16 points, Corning (21-6) made one final run, capped by a Cameron Nye layup and a Milo Martinovich 3-pointer to cut it to 63-53 with 50 seconds to go. It was a desperate attempt, according to Corning coach Bill Mache, after the Cardinals were outscored 15-7 in the third quarter, turning a once- close game into a Paradise double-digit lead. "We got out of sync offensively and had a bad quarter," Mache said. "We were in a pretty desper- ate situation, so we decided to press and got some turnovers to cut the lead, but at that point we were too far behind." Both teams finished with three players in double figures. Corning was led by Nye's 14 points, Luis Piseno's 12 and Martinovich's 11. However, Paradise also tallied three in double figures while hitting the big shots as well. Trevor Edgecomb, the Bobcats' third option scoring-wise, dropped in his 13th point immediate- ly following Mache's timeout and pushed Par- adise's lead to 61-44 with 3:20 left in the fourth. "Paradise played well," Mache said. But Breevaart's assessment delved a bit further. "Tonight they didn't have as (many) tough play- ers as Chico, Enterprise and PV (do)," Breevaart said. "The EAL is a lot tougher than the teams Corning plays against." Jeff Larson is the sports editor at the Paradise Post. Lady Cardinals out, fall to Foothill 45-43 DN Staff Report The Lady Cardinals built up a lead and then watched it slowly slip away to the Foothill Cougars in a 45-43 loss in Thursday night's Division III girls basketball first round playoff game. Corning jumped out to a 16-10 first quarter and commit- ted just one turnover in the first half, but Foothill slowly start- ed plucking away at the deficit and capitalized on Cardinal mistakes. In the second half the Lady Cardinals committed nine turnovers and the shots they did get off stopped dropping. "We played hard all game, but in the end Foothill out rebounded and out-hustled us," Corning coach Kurt Eller said. Regan Albee led the Cardinals with 12 points and five assists. Chante Dale chipped in 11 points and three steals and Michelle Silva had six points and nine rebounds. "We played aggressively all game and we had our oppor- tunities to win — we expected to win, but it wasn't meant to be," Eller said. The 2009 Division IV champions captured a second con- secutive Northern Athletic League process during their first season in Division III and finished with a record of 16-10. Mercy advances to semis, with one-point road win DN Staff Report The Mercy boys basketball team advanced to the Division VI semifinals with a 53-52 win at Loyalton, Thursday night. The No. 5 seeded Warriors will meet the top-seeded 15-8 Hayfork Timberjacks on Tuesday night..