Stallions, Toros advance to basketball semifinals

Courtesy of Christopher Cross

Madera South’s Daniel Valdez drives the lane and getting contact during Friday’s victory over McLane. Valdez led the 13th-seeded Stallions with 17 points over 12th-seeded McLane in the Div. V Central Section quarterfinals.

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While the Matilda Torres Toros needed a buzzer-beating bucket to advance, the Madera South Stallions had to hold off the home team as both teams advanced to the semifinals of the Central Section playoffs this week.

Matilda Torres Toros

The fourth-seeded Torres trailed in the final seconds of its Div. VI quarterfinal game against No. 5 seed Avenal on Friday at Matilda Torres.

“I burned three time out towards the end,” head coach Charles Rigby said. “There was a little over 30 seconds left for the first time out. I drew something up for Junio (Arturo Corona Jr.) at the top of the key. They were playing man and knew they were undersized and switched everything. We wanted to get Junior against their big man in space to get downhill, which he did. He missed the layup and got his own rebound. He was fumbling it towards our bench, I called another timeout.”