Eagles stunned by first trip to CIF finals, will wait till next year

The shots just wouldn’t fall for the Olympian boys basketball team in last Friday’s San Diego Section Division IV championship game at the University of San Diego. Balls bounced off the front of the rim; some shots didn’t even make it that far.

Ball-hungry Brawley players grabbed rebounds and swatted away balls under the hoop.

It was a humbling ending to an otherwise magical season for second-seeded Olympian after dropping a 69-53 decision to the top-seeded Wildcats.

Eagles coach Marty Ellis said it was a case of experience that separated the teams.

“It’s one of those things of experience,” noted Ellis, whose team trailed 19-9 after the first quarter and 29-21 at halftime. “If this is your first time here (to the CIF finals), there’s a lot of ooohing and aaaahing. For us, it was  aaaaahs.
They (Brawley) had been here before and it showed. They had the experience to deal with all the things that pop up in a game like this. This was a big moment for our guys.

“The team that loses a game like this usually comes back the next year and wins it. We’ll be back.”

Isaiah Williams led the Eagles (28-3) in scoring with 12 points while Albert Neel and Jerome Hoover III each dropped in 10 points. Mike Temple led Olympian with nine rebounds.

Cold shooting proved to be the Eagles’ demise. Olympian shot  just 27.6 percent from the floor in the first half compared to 40 percent for the Wildcats (26-7). The Eagles shot 30.3 percent from the floor for the entire game; Brawley shot 43.6 percent.

For the Wildcats, Jonathan Zarate led all players on the court in scoring with 25 points while Adalberto Lopez, the Imperial Valley League Player of the Year, poured in 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Lopez was injured late in the game and the contest was stopped for about 15 minutes until he could be carried off the floor. It was a non-contact injury. “I just came down on my leg wrong,” he said while laying on the trainer’s table after the game with his knee wrapped in ice.

Olympian, which won its first league title in school history this season, did receive a state playoff berth. The 12th-seeded Eagles defeated fifth-seeded Desert Christian Academy, 49-46, on the road Tuesday in a Division V contest.