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JetHampton attempts a shot in Paradise's 57-48loss to Red Bluff on Friday night. RICK SILVA — POST ByJeffLarson ParadisePost PARADISE ThelasttimethePar- adise High boys basketball team hosted Red Bluff it left happy, courtesy of a game-winning buzzer-beater by senior Jet Hamp- ton well beyond the 3-point line. The rematch, over a month later, had seniors Lane Pritchard and Joey Knight dominating Par- adise inside all night, as Pritchard dropped in 29 points, while Knight added 18 to lead the fifth- seeded Spartans over the No. 4 Bobcats, 57-48 in the Northern Section Division III quarterfinals Friday night in Paradise. "It was our main focus all week to not get down like we did last time. We were down 16-0 to start the game," Pritchard said. "Then we dug ourselves out (and) gave up that buzzer-beater — and we were thinking about that all week." Pritchard made his last trip to Paradise one to remember, not only with the 29 points, but con- verting on 17 of 18 free-throw at- tempts — something he didn't do so well late in the 51-50 loss to Paradise back on Jan. 18. Had Pritchard converted his free throws last time at Paradise, Hampton may not have had the opportunity to drop Red Bluff with one shot. This time, Pritchard said he was more mentally aware each and every time he stepped to the line. "I was bending my knees more and following through," he said. "Definitely focusing more." Paradise coach Jerry Cleek no- ticed the dominance of Pritchard on Friday night. "He's one of the two-best play- ers in the league, maybe the sec- tion," said Cleek, who guided Par- adise (8-18) to its first home play- off game since the 2010-11 season. "He's special and a great kid." Paradise stayed within reach of Red Bluff (7-18), despite not con- verting on the 3-pointer as well as D-III QUARTERFINAL ParadisedroppedbyPritchard RedBluffwinsrematchagainstBobcats By Chip Thompson editor@redbluffdailynews.com @editorchip on Twitter CORNING The Corning Car- dinals boys' basketball team missed out on a perfect 10-0 league record after a loss to the Anderson Cubs in the final game of the regular season, but Fri- day night they had a chance to avenge the loss and avenge it they did. In a physical game that was neck-and-neck until the closing minutes, the No. 3 seed Cardi- nals knocked off the No. 6 seed Cubs 51-40 at home. "It wasn't easy," said coach Kurt Wilkins following the vic- tory. "The kids were prepared. They knew what they had to do and they did it." Wilkins said his team didn't rebound well in its Feb. 19 loss to the Cubs in Anderson, but tonight his players turned that around. Wyatt Haydon put the Cards on the board first and Anderson answered with a three-pointer and that would be the story of the back-and-forth game most of the night. At the end of the first the Cubs were up 12-11, but the Cards would open the second with buckets from Corey Busta and Austin Mishoe, a foul shot from Brendan Hoag and a three from Noah Zoppi to go up 19-13 — the biggest advantage of the night for either team by that point. Anderson came back with a pair of threes to tie it at 19 be- fore Busta put the Cards back up 21-19. The Cards would extend the lead to 24-20 on the foul shooting of Busta and Zoppi, but an Anderson three with just sec- onds to go in the half sent the Cards to halftime with just a 24- 23 advantage. The third quarter was more back-and-forth with Busta, Hoag, Haydon and Mishoe hit- ting their shots, but the Cards were only able to extend their lead to 35-33 by the end of the period. It was in the final frame that the Cards started to widen the gap, with a pair of threes from Busta and a bucket from Hoag putting the Cards up 43-33. The Cubs fought back to reduce the deficit to 45-40 and went to a full court press in the final min- ute, but Hoag and Haydon sank six straight foul shots to close out the game. Haydon led the Cards with 19 points, Busta had 13, Hoag 9 and Mishoe and Zoppi with 5 each. Busta had 15 rebounds and an assist; Hoag had 8 rebounds and a steal; Zoppi had 3 rebounds and 6 assists; Tyler Grine had 2 rebounds and 3 assists, Mishoe had 3 rebounds and 2 assists and Haydon had 4 rebounds, an assist and 2 steals. With the win the Cardinals BOYS BASKETBALL CARDINALS HAVE LAST LAUGH OVER ANDERSON Win sends Corning to rematch with Oroville DAILY NEWS - CHIP THOMPSON The Cardinals' Brendan Hoag (32) puts up a shot Friday night against the Anderson Cubs at Corning. By Carl Steward Bay Area News Group OAKLAND As the Warriors at- tempted to quell a percolating national controversy surround- ing Draymond Green, with Green himself doing most of the quelling, there was a fresh drama to redirect everyone's at- tention Monday — the health of MVP guard Stephen Curry. Despite a phenomenal perfor- mance against Oklahoma City in which he scored 46 points and made the winning shot in over- time from just past half court, Curry was listed as question- able with a left ankle sprain for Tuesday night's Warriors return to Oracle Arena against the At- lanta Hawks. Curry did not practice, and while the injury doesn't appear to be too serious, he said he is still experiencing pain. The in- jury occurred during a tangle under the basket with the Thun- der's Russell Westbrook on Sat- urday night. "Considering how it happened and how it felt after the game, I've made some progress," Curry said. "It's still a little sore, but hopefully I'll be ready (for the Hawks)." Curry said his ankle was very sore on the team's off day and that he knows he has to be careful in the coming days even though he risked returning to the game to deliver his remark- able heroics. "If there's one thing I know very well, it's the ankle," he said. "I knew I had to get it retaped to take some pressure off of it, but once they did some tests, I knew I was fine to come out and play and just deal with the soreness and pain. There wasn't WARRIORS Curry questionable Tuesday against Hawks CHESTER The Mercy Warriors girls' and boys' basketball teams were underdogs Friday night when they faced off against the top seeded Chester Volcanoes, but both teams nearly played the role of spoilers. The Lady Warriors kept pace with the Volcanoes and went into halftime knotted at 23. A third quarter fade put Chester up by 9, but the Mercy girls came roar- ing back to tie it at 47 at the end of regulation. The Volcanoes took the game 54-50 in overtime. Madeline Flynn had a monster game and led the Warriors with 21 points, 15 rebounds, 2 assists and 7 steals. The double-double caps the senior's high school career. Tasha Pimentel, also a senior, wrapped up her Mercy playing days with a double-double, with 13 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assist and 4 steals and senior Cheyanne Johnson came up just shy of the double-double with 9 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. Laura Keane had 5 points, 7 re- bounds, an assist and a steal and Annie Feser had 2 points and 7 rebounds. Mary DiMaggio had 2 rebounds. The Lady Warriors finish the year 15-13 overall, 5-3 league. Flynn led the league in blocks per game at 1.1, was third in dou- BASKETBALL Mercy boys, girls bumped by Chester Lady Warriors take Volcanoes to overtime By Nick Woodard nwoodard@chicoer.com @nwoodard25 on Twitter GRIDLEY For the second straight year, the Northern Section Divi- sion II boys soccer champion- ship came down to the same two teams — No. 1 Gridley High and No. 2 Corning. But unlike the 2015 final at Corning, Saturday's title match wasn't close. The Bulldogs put together a 2-0 lead at halftime and doubled it by the end of the match, beat- ing Corning 4-0 at home to earn their second straight Division II championship after taking a 1-0 win over Corning a year ago. It was Gridley's third straight cham- pionship appearance, and it was the third straight year that Corn- ing's season has ended at the hands of Gridley. David Gomez, Eusevio Cer- vantes and Ernesto Fuentes scored goals in the win for Gridley (15-2-1). Ernie Caudillo manned the goal in the shutout. And coach Jesse Barajas earned the celebra- tion shower from his team after the win, his fourth with Gridley. "It feels great. These guys PREP BOYS SOCCER Gr id le y be at s Corning for di vi si on t it le RED BLUFF PAGE 2 CORNING PAGE 2 WARRIORS PAGE 2 MERCY PAGE 2 SOCCER PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, March 1, 2016 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1