Monte Vista ousts San Leandro

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Mar 4, 2009 | by Michael Bower

The task was daunting, but the Monte Vista High boys basketball team was up to the challenge.

The No. 3 Mustangs went through the best the Hayward Area Athletic League has to offer to earn a spot in the North Coast Section Division I championship game.

Last week, the Mustangs avoided elimination with a 64-60 overtime victory over Castro Valley in the NCS quarterfinals.

On Wednesday night, the Mustangs completed their march through the HAAL's finest with a 63-51 victory over HAAL champion and No. 2 San Leandro in a NCS semifinal game at San Leandro High.

The Mustangs (25-3) are now guaranteed a spot in the California Interscholastic Federation Northern California Regional tournament.

But first Monte Vista will face No. 4 Newark Memorial, which beat top seed De La Salle 39-33, in the section title game Saturday at 8 p.m. at St. Mary's College in Moraga.

"It was the best feeling when we won NCS our sophomore year," said Monte Vista guard Brian Barbour, who played on the Mustangs' 2007 NCS Division I championship squad. "It is great to get back to the title game, especially in our senior year."

The Mustangs, who were led by Taylor Brewster's 13 points, were able to keep the Pirates out of sync on offense by slowing the game down to a lull.

The Pirates (24-4) had just 10 first-half points and trailed by 11 at the break. San Leandro had no answer for the stifling zone defense of the Mustangs and never recovered from the halftime deficit.

"We knew San Leandro can run with the best of them," said Barbour, who finished with 12 points but was held in check most of the game by San Leandro standout Jared Cunningham. "We wanted to play five-on-five. We lose by 10 if this game was up-tempo."

San Leandro's bid to become the first team in school history to reach the section title game ended with the loss.

The Pirates got a game-high 14 points from Pierre Davis and 10 points each from Nick Armas and Travis Sims.

"This is not how we wanted our season to end," San Leandro forward Demetrious Owens said. "We had a good season. We won 20 games, but we didn't want it to end like this."

Oregon State-bound Cunningham never got going. He had no points in the first half and fouled out with 4:14 to go. He finished with seven points.

Division II playoffs

Hayward 61, Heritage 47: The host Farmers got a boost from two unlikely sources as Dimicco Jackson had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Adrian Pyles held Heritage playmaker Jordan Knox in check as the No. 1 seed Farmers advanced to the Division II final for the second straight year with the win over the No. 4 Patriots.

Hayward will take on No. 3 Northgate in a repeat of last year's quarterfinal matchup, which Hayward won 69-51. Northgate was a 45- 43 winner over No. 2 Las Lomas. The title game will be Saturday at St. Mary's College in Moraga. Game time as at 4 p.m.

Jackson had 10 points in the second half as the Farmers were finally able to shake off the determined Patriots with a 12-3 run to end the third quarter for a 44-31 Hayward lead entering the final eight minutes of the contest.

"I decided to start (Jackson) and he gave us a huge boost inside," Hayward coach Iman Mattox said. "We did a great job controlling the paint and really took advantage at one of our strengths."

Pyles scored four points off the bench for Hayward, but it was his presence on the defensive side that gave the Farmers a push.

When Pyles entered the game three minutes in, he was matched up with Knox, and Pyles harassed him all night long. Knox was held to 3- of-10 shooting before fouling out with 4:43 left. The senior finished with 17 points and eight rebounds, both team-highs. He was 10-for-13 from the free-throw line.

After John Moffatt hit a jumper to cut the Heritage lead to 32- 28, the Farmers responded by scoring 12 of the final 15 points to end the third quarter as Berry hit a 3-pointer right before the buzzer.

Hayward got off to a strong start, scoring the first eight points of the game, but the Patriots bounced back to take a 15-13 lead. After Heritage's Mark Winthrop made 1 of 2 from the charity stripe with six seconds left in the half, Jabreel Nasir brought the ball up court before draining a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Farmers a seven point lead going into halftime.

"That shot was a huge momentum shift for us going into the half," Mattox said.

Berry had a solid all-around effort, finishing with a game-high 22 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Keith Martin added 13 points to go along with nine rebounds and three blocked shots for Hayward. Moffatt had 10 points for the Patriots.

-- Tony Gonsalez, Correspondent

Division III playoffs

Analy 65, Bishop O'Dowd 63: The No. 5 seed Tigers (25-6) fought back from a 12-point deficit early in the second half to take the lead with 3:02 remaining and kept the Dragons at bay to finish it and stun the No. 1 seed Dragons (20-8) in this Division III semifinal game at Analy. O'Dowd regained the lead at 60-59 with 2:15 left, but point guard Max Fujii hit a wild-looking 12-footer that bounced out and in with 40 seconds on the clock. Shortly thereafter, forward Corey Daley stole the ball, got fouled and hit a pair of free throws to make it 63-60. Fujii hit two more free throws, making Nick Capiti's desperation 3-pointer just before the buzzer meaningless.