RIPON — For the first four minutes of the Trans-Valley League showdown for first place Tuesday night between Ripon and visiting Ripon Christian, the Knights were outscored 15-2 and were going nowhere fast.
Then Ripon Christian big men Ty Beidleman and Lukas Vermuelen helped the Knights end the opening period on  10-4 run and Zach Cortright’s nine second-quarter points gave Ripon Christian a halftime lead it would not relinquish on the way to a 57-46 win for the TVL championship, the second in as many years for the Knights.
“Our guys kept their cool, fought and got back into it,” Ripon Christian coach Mark Hofman said. “They stayed with it and I told them there was a lot of basketball left and they responded.
“They share the ball, they play for each other. I can never tell who is going to play well. They always play the same way but different guys have better games and they recognize it.”
With 20 seconds left in the first half Cortright (19 points) gave the Knights (10-2 TVL, 18-7 overall) the lead for good at 26-25 with a 3-pointer on an assist from Travis Vander Molen. With time running down Cortright stole the ball and raced coast-to-coast, dropping the ball over the front of the net as time expired for a 28-25 halftime lead.
Cortright was 8 of 10 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. When asked about the fourth-quarter free throws, Cortright said, “I was definitely feeling the pressure, but I just tried my best to stay calm.
“The game was a battle. We played hard. They played hard and our posts tore it up. It seemed like we couldn’t get a rebound n the first half but in the second half we made some adjustments.”
Beidleman and Vermuelen were a presence in the key after the first four minutes, forcing the Indians (10-2, 22-5) to settle for shots they would have rather not taken.
“For the past week we have worked a lot on post moves and different moves to throw them off,” Vermuelen said. “I think they had watched film and learned all our moves so all week we were working on new moves.
“All year our coach was telling us that our bigs were the key and we really put that to use tonight.”
Beidlemen finished with 13 points and seven rebounds and Vermuelen had 10 points, five rebounds and two blocks.
“They came out a blazing,” Beidleman said. “I don’t think we were quite ready for it.
“Our coach pulled us aside and told us we had better get it together if we wanted to win this. We came together as a team and we played harder – that is what it came down to.”
Ripon’s Cody Haines led all scorers with 22 points, the only Indian in double figures. Cole Stevens added seven points and foul trouble limited Aaron Paschini to five points. Anthony Sisk came off the bench for Ripon to grab seven rebounds and Haines had eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
“Our field goal percentage was horrible,” Indians coach Rod Wright said. “When my two guards can’t score but 12 points total then it’s going to be a long night.
“Everything we worked on in practice we did in the first quarter. They did it to a T. But then Ripon Christian played through that surge and although we knew where their offensive cuts were going to come and we didn’t switch it.”
After scoring 19 points in the first quarter, Ripon scored six points in the second quarter and a total of 27 the final three periods.
“We went stone cold,” Wright said. “Just stone cold. They are big and they made us do things we weren’t supposed to do. But it is an RC-Ripon game and there is always a rivalry thing there.”
This was the regular season finale and both teams are due to start the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs next week. The brackets will be released Thursday.