Gutierrez scores 29, BCHS uses big fourth quarter to rally past Centennial, 69-63

Jan. 29—Trailing most of the first three quarters, Bakersfield Christian did just enough to stay close to Centennial in Saturday night's non-league boys basketball showdown, featuring two of the area's best.

In the final eight minutes, the Eagles finally got over the hump.

Sparked by a 29-point performance by sophomore point guard Gabriel Gutierrez, and aided by an ill-advised technical foul, host BCHS held the Golden Hawks without a field goal in the final 6:25 and earned a hard-fought 69-63 victory in front of a large, vocal crowd.

"It was important for our confidence to win a game like that down the stretch," Bakersfield Christian coach Garrett Brown said. "But for us, we've been in games like this for the last four years. And we're used to it."

The Eagles' victory snapped a 15-game winning streak for Centennial (20-4), which hadn't lost to a Kern County opponent since coach Stephon Carter's debut during the COVID-abbreviated season in the spring of 2021, a stretch of 24 games.

"Tough loss," Carter said. "(But) I told the team it honestly doesn't hurt us. We can still win our league. We play in environments like this all year, so we should be used to this kind of game. But I feel like the last 3 or 4 minutes they kind of got tight on us and made some bad decisions, and BCHS capitalized on that."

Centennial led 58-51 entering the final quarter, but BCHS (17-7) opened with a flurry.

A driving layup by Gutierrez followed by a 3-pointer by Bentley Waller trimmed the lead to 58-56 as the momentum began to shift.

Golden Hawks senior Jay Jay Jones, who finished with a team-high 17 points, scored off a nice spin move to build his team's lead back to four, but he celebrated a bit too much and was assessed a technical foul by the game's officials with 6:22 to play

It was the last field goal Centennial made in the game, and the team was held to just three free throws the rest of the way.

Gutierrez made the ensuing free throws and then hit a pull-up jumper from the free throw to tie the game at 60-60 with 6:00 to play, the start of a 13-3 BCHS run to close out the game.

"Honestly, I think the technical was the turning point," Carter said "We were chugging along, up six, up eight, up 10, but once we got that technical it went from four to two to a tie game ..."

After Golden Hawks standout Rippen Gill, last year's Southwest Yosemite League player of the year, was whistled for a traveling call, BCHS took the lead for good, 62-60, on an inside basket by Louis Duarte.

Charlie Stump built Bakersfield Christian's advantage to 64-60 with a rebound and score, and Gutierrez, Duarte and Troy Lei each hit free throws in the final minute to extend the Eagles' lead. Duarte also took a big charge on Gill as he drove to the basket with 34.7 seconds left and his team trailing by two points.

"I'm just proud of my guys," Brown said. "We knew that offensive rebounding was going to be key for (Centennial) because they're big and they're physical and athletic, so we just wanted to limit their second-chance points. And I thought we did a pretty good job of that tonight because I felt like that was the only way that they could beat us."

Gutierrez made his first three shots and assisted on a basket by Michael Shafic to give the Eagles an early 8-5 lead, but the Golden Hawks regained control with a 9-0 run that included a powerful, one-hand slam dunk by 6-foot-4 junior Donn Bolton, who finished with 10 points.

But thanks to 26 combined points from Gutierrez and Waller, Bakersfield Christian stayed close, trailing by no more than six points, despite seven 3-pointers by Centennial in the first half. Both Gill (16 points) and Elijah West (nine points) finished the game with three 3-pointers apiece.

"I felt good in warmups and I knew my shot was going to hit today," Gutierrez said. "The environment) was crazy, but the program is really used to it, so it was really nothing to us. I like games like this, (and) I'm just happy we won."

Centennial threatened to pull away early in the third quarter and built it's lead to 46-36 on a basket by Jones off an out-of-bounds play in the first 2 minutes of the second half. Jones had seven points in the quarter, including his second 3-pointer of the game.

Gutierrez had eight points in the quarter and Waller was 4-for-4 from the line to keep things close, setting the stage for the Eagles' fourth-quarter comeback.

"Gabe Gutierrez is special," Brown said. "He's a special, special player, a special kid, and I have him for the next three years, so that feels pretty good. He and Bentley were really good tonight attacking their guards and getting to the free throw line, getting into the paint and making plays."

Waller finished with 19 points, including several acrobatic scoring drives to the basket, but he aggravated a patellar tendon injury midway through the fourth quarter and spent the remainder of the game on the bench with an ice pack on his knee.

"I told Bentley, man, we don't win that game without you," said Brown, who expects Waller to miss a few games. "I know he's a little down right now, but God has him and he's going to be fine. He'll get some rest and some therapy and he'll be ready to go for the playoffs."

The victory for BCHS was the team's 12th in its last 13 games, and the Eagles will take an 11-game league winning streak into Tuesday's home game against Ridgeview (16-6, 3-1). The Wolf Pack's only South Yosemite Valley League loss was to Bakersfield Christian, 61-54 two weeks ago.

"For us, yah (this was) a big game, but it's just a regular season game," Brown said. "We play in front of crowds like that all the time in the state playoffs, Valley playoffs, so for us, we knew we couldn't win a Valley championship tonight. We couldn't lose a Valley championship tonight, so it was just another regular season game against a really good team. It's a game that Bakersfield has wanted to see for two years ... and we took care of business."