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Palo Alto 50, Los Altos 44
Date of competition: Wednesday, January 18, 2023
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Sophomore Jorell Clark sparkled with 21 points in leading Palo Alto High School (12-5; 4-1 in league) in a home win over Los Altos High School (7-9; 2-3) by a final score of 50-44. Junior Riley Yuen (8 points); and seniors Noah Chen (7 points), Jackson Martin (6 points), Mert Yanar (5 points), and Sean Hogan (3 points) rounded out the scoring for the Vikings. The game was tightly contested throughout. Paly led early in the first quarter, but by quarter’s end, Los Altos was ahead 19-14. Los Altos built its largest lead of the game – seven points – in the middle of the second quarter, but Paly battled back to make it a two point game (23-25) at intermission. Chen scored two buckets to keep Paly close in the period, including a key steal and layup on a Los Altos in-bounds pass after a Paly made bucket. Los Altos managed to fend off Paly for much of the third quarter; but thanks largely to Clark’s 10-point outburst, with just over two minutes left in the period, the Vikings took their first lead (32-31) since early in the first quarter. But the teams would go into the fourth and final frame tied at 35. Los Altos opened the final period with a four-point play, making it 39-35, and the Eagles still led by three with 4:20 left in the game. And that’s when Paly made its final push. Paly reclaimed the lead at 43-42 with 3:10 left in the game, courtesy of a tough bucket by Clark in the lane. After a Los Altos miss, Yanar passed ahead to Martin who pump-faked a closing Eagle defender out of position for the layup. Another free throw by Clark made it 46-42, Palo Alto. Los Altos responded with a bucket inside to cut the lead to two points with just under a minute left. On the next possession, Paly worked the clock but missed a corner three; however, the ball went out of bounds off Los Altos. With about 25 seconds left, the Eagles were forced to foul. Clark hit both ends of a one-and-one – including the front-end that hung on the rim for what seemed like an eternity before falling back into the net – to nudge Paly’s lead to 48-44. Los Altos pushed the ball after Clark’s free throws, but Martin stole the long pass, was fouled, and hit both ends of a 1-1 for the final score of 50-44. Once again, Palo Alto was strong from the charity stripe, going 16-23 as a team. While Clark was the dominant scorer in this game for Paly, the rebounding was a team effort. Hogan led the Vikings with 8 rebounds, followed by Yanar (6), Clark (4), Yuen (3), and Martin (3). Juniors Alaap Nair (1), Jason Auzenne (1), and sophomore Gavin Haase (1) rounded out the work on the boards for Paly. Next up for the Vikings is a road game at Saratoga on Friday January 20th at 7:00 p.m. Given the general parity of the teams in league play, Palo Alto expects another tough game on Friday night.
posted by Jeff LaMere, coach on Jan 19, 2023 at 8:47 am
Jorell Clark rises up for a made field goal
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