ALA needs only 1 OT this time

SANDY — After three quarters Wednesday, American Leadership's David Armendariz was virtually non-existent, having been held scoreless on 0-for-3 shooting from the field.

That quickly changed in the fourth quarter and overtime. The junior scored 12 points over the next 12 minutes, including the game-winning putback as time expired, lifting American Leadership to a 45-43 overtime victory over Waterford.

"That kid is a really dedicated kid," said ALA coach Joel Martinez, whose team also beat Waterford in double-overtime a few weeks ago. "He's been doing that for the last four games."

Ironically enough, Wednesday's heroics nearly went to ALA leading scorer Cameron Eagle. Because of a stomach virus, the senior played sparingly in the first half before being relegated to the bench during the entire second half and overtime — that was until the final 10 seconds.

After regaining possession on a Waterford travelling violation late in the overtime, Martinez quickly called a timeout and inserted Eagle into the game.

"We told him to get to the basket, get a foul and get a good look," said Martinez.

Eagle did exactly that, but his layup attempt rimmed out. Fortunately for the Eagles, Armendariz was there to corral the offensive rebound and put it back in at the buzzer.

With the victory, American Leadership improved to 13-5, but more importantly 5-2 in league play. That puts it within striking distance of region front-runner North Summit (6-1, 16-2), which the Eagles play this Friday.

When the top two teams in Region 14 met on American Leadership's home court a few weeks ago, North Summit's Kamren Garfield drilled a game-winning 15-foot jump shot at the buzzer.

"We have to win on Friday," said Martinez in reference to his team's region title aspirations.

To beat North Summit, Martinez admits his players must defend better down the stretch. Leading 36-31 midway through the fourth quarter, ALA allowed Waterford point guard Josh Augustine to bury consecutive jump shots that cut the deficit to 36-35. Then, after a a pair of Armendariz free throws, the Ravens' Alex Orr drained a 3-pointer with 48 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime at 38-38.

Orr hit another big 3-pointer in overtime to put Waterford (3-4, 6-9) ahead 43-42, but that was the Ravens' last lead as Armendariz scored the game's final three points.

"Experience-wise this is going to help a lot because we want to finish in the top two so we can have a better seed at the (state) tournament," said Martinez.

American Leadership led by as many as nine in the second quarter, but Waterford methodically whittled away at the lead and eventually leveled the score at 27-27 by the end of the third quarter.

Even though Armendariz was the star for ALA, Ivan Caldera led the team with 13 points, while Kevin Roberts chipped in with 11.

Waterford's Augustine led all scorers with 18.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com