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Thunder rally to win their finale
Nathaniel Yazzie, from the Navajo Nation, had his own fans at the Thunder’s finale on May 25 at Bernalillo High School. He and a few other “local” players, including former Cleveland High standout Ryan Jones and Marcus Williams – injured in the May 24 game and unable to play Saturday -- and Jared Fuller from Rio Rancho High School, got a special introduction and even mic time.
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BERNALILLO--Third quarters have been the Achilles’ heel all season for the Santa Ana Thunder, and such was the case in the team’s finale of its inaugural season in The Basketball League. With 22.3 seconds left in regulation, the Thunder trailed by a point.
Resilient all season, the Thunder rallied for a 119-116 victory, splitting its Friday-Saturday series with the visiting Wichita SkyKings.
The Thunder (8-12) led the Wichita SkyKings for much of the first half, until a 15-0 run had them trailing 61-55 at halftime. Wichita (7-13) led by as many as 14 points in the third period, which ended with the SkyKIngs holding a 91-87 edge.
Determined to go out on a winning note after a loss to the SkyKings the night before, the Thunder tied Wichita at 92, 96 and 114 in the fourth period, when they also had a 109-100 lead.
With 20.6 seconds left in regulation, the Thunder trailed, 116-115. Just five seconds later, Santa Ana’s Michael Hood drained a 3-pointer to make it 118-116 and a midcourt turnover by the SkyKings proved fatal: Jordan Jones sank one of two free throws, and the SkyKings missed a potential game-tying shot that beat the buzzer and ricocheted off the backboard to send the approximate 200 Thunder fans home happy.
“We played spurts of great basketball,” said coach Cliff Levingston. “Sometimes we lose our focus and we let teams go on a run and we don’t know how to stop them yet.
“But one thing we do know, we know how to gut it out and play tough defense to get back in ballgames,” he said. “The biggest thing tonight was we trusted one another, to be there for one another.”
Christopher Bradford led the Thunder with 38 points, Dajion Henderson added 22, Jones had 15, Victor Warison contributed 14 and Joshua Brewer chipped in with 11.
Davin Andrews led the SkyKings with 46 points aided by six 3-pointers.
The Thunder again struggled from beyond the arc, making 5 of their 19 attempts; Wichita was 13 of 34 from behind the arc.
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Wichita 121, Santa Ana 109: On Friday night, the Thunder rallied from a 15-point deficit after the first quarter to grab a 48-46 lead at halftime.
Again, the third period was a stumbling block: Wichita had a convincing 93-74 lead heading into the fourth period and led by as many as 23 points before another late run by the Thunder, whittling that deficit down to nine (110-101) with 2:17 to go.
That was as close as Santa Ana would get, before losing by a dozen points.
Bradford led the Thunder with 34 points, Ty Sean Powell had 24 and Brewer added 15. Former Thunder high-scorer Oliver Edward-Hampton led the SkyKings with 35.
The SkyKings also had a sizeable edge in 3-point shooting, going 15 of 40 to the Thunder’s 6 of 24.
“If we could just go to the fourth quarter (after halftime), we’d be all right,” Levingston added.
He said he’s hoping for larger crowds in the 2025 season.
“I didn’t expect the size of the crowd to be humungous this year,” he said, when asked about the turnout at BHS, usually about 100. “I thought we would have to improve ourselves first – to show we have quality basketball, to show the people that we have a team that you want to be proud of and get behind. I think we’ve done that this year.
“So, next year there’ll be a little bit more of a marketing plan, letting the people know we’re and we’re around.”
Levingston said the team will probably play its home games in the BHS gym, “to build our fan base first,” where the Thunder went 5-5.
