Chad Ridenour delivers at the buzzer for Royals

Given a second chance to win a game on a last-second shot, the San Marcos boys basketball team came through on Wednesday night.

Down 63-62 with eight seconds left against top-seeded Ocean View, Chad Ridenour took the inbounds pass, dribbled the length of the court and knocked down a 15-foot jumper as the clocked expired to give the Royals a 64-63 win at the Santa Barbara Holiday Classic.

“Chad had two big steals in the first half for easy baskets and made a couple huge shots late in the game, none bigger than his jumper at the buzzer,” said San Marcos coach Jarrod Bradley.

The previous night, Donny Nahmias missed a buzzer shot and the Royals lost by one point to Clovis West.

Against Ocean View, the Royals were down by two and 38 seconds left when Nahmias hit a 3-pointer to put them up one. On the ensuing play Ocean View’s point guard drove the right baseline and pulled up for a 10-footer that caromed the rim and backboard and into the hands of 6-10 Conor Clifford, who tipped it in with 8 seconds on the clock.

That set up Ridenour for his heroics.

The Royals improve to 11-3 while the CIF Division 3A runners-up fall to 9-4.

Christian Mkpado led all scorers with 20 points and 9 rebounds while defending Clifford nearly the entire game. Chad Ridenour added 14 points, including three steals, while Thayer White shot 7-10 from the field en route to his 16 points.

Billy Keller led Ocean View with 18 points and Clifford added 16.

“We came out in the first quarter and played disciplined half-court defense tonight but Ocean View did a great job trying to speed up the game with their full-court pressure,” Bradley said. “All of our guys made big plays tonight. Thayer kept us in the game with his energy and big shots every time Ocean View made a run. Christian outplayed their center in the second half, scoring on multiple plays around the rim, while Donny had only one turnover against their full court pressure and hit a huge three to put us up one with 30 seconds left. Johnny (Manzo) had a great fourth quarter finding Christian, Thayer and Chad for easy baskets.”

“I’m really proud of the character our guys showed tonight,” Bradley added. “We battled fatigue, foul trouble and some huge shots that Keller and (Josh) Mishler hit but we still persevered. We found a way to win through sheer will and unselfishness.”

The Royals play Northwood on Thursday at 3 p.m.