Wednesday’s Hilltop-Olympian boys basketball semifinal match-up was destined to promote at least one Metro Conference team to Friday’s San Diego Section Division IV championship game at the University of San Diego’s Jenny Craig Pavilion.
Both teams were battling for a piece of school history, as neither team had ever advanced to a CIF final in the sport.
Olympian won, 79-70, in front of a raucous crowd estimated at 1,000 to etch its name in school history.
“We worked hard, we ran hard, we practiced hard,” Olympian junior power forward Isaiah Williams explained. “We worked hard to win this. We worked for each other.”
Indeed, the second-seeded Eagles (28-2) did just that.
After topping the 14th-seeded Lancers (13-18) twice in South Bay League play, Olympian had to dig deep to beat them a third time after trailing 40-36 at halftime. But the league champions rebounded in the second half thanks to a 13-0 scoring run.
The Eagles carried a 56-54 lead into the final quarter and soared by out-scoring Hilltop 23-16 down the stretch run.
The large crowd remained energized until the end, with Olympian fans flooding the court in celebration as the game clock zeroed out.
Eagles head coach Marty Ellis reiterated how hard his team worked to make it to the division championship game.
“This is a team that works hard,” he noted. “They practice every day; they don’t back down. They do everything that is required of them in the system we run.”
By Ellis’s enumeration, his team has now entered phase three of the season.
“Phase one was getting 10 to 15 wins, phase two was winning league phase three was getting here (the CIF finals) and phase four is state,” he explained. “We’re not done yet. This is just the beginning.”
This Olympian bunch certainly appears to be a motivated group.
A.J. Neel led the Eagles in scoring in Wednesday’s game with 25 points while Williams and teammate Sean Hernandez poured in 20 points each. Williams was a force under the hoop with 14 rebounds.
Dylan Waters led Hilltop with 20 points while Ryan Major scored 18 points and teammate Ariel Valtierra scored 13 points.
Major sank four three-pointers in the game while Waters had three treys.
The contest was wide open with Olympian dropping in nine three-point shots and Hilltop countering with seven treys.
But it was defense, Williams said, that ultimately won the game for his team.
“We had a lot of turnovers but we fought on in the game,” the Eagle power forward explained. “We knew there was a lot of time left in the ballgame. We just kept playing.”
“They (the Lancers) came out with a lot of energy,” Ellis said. “We pressured them and they seemed to get tired.”
After eliminating third-seeded Maranatha Christian (49-47 on Feb. 22) and sixth-seeded Calexico (58-52 on Feb. 25), Hilltop was looking for another upset win in the semifinals. They were close to getting it.
“We knew they liked to trap,” Major said. “We wanted to find a press to find a gap to drive right past them to the basket.”
“The main thing was box out and get rebounds,” HHS junior Justin Wilson explained. “It worked. Then we got a little tired and they started hitting a lot of shots.
“(But) everyone at our school has heart and our fans kept cheering us on.”
Wilson earned celebrity status during the playoffs when his three-point shot at the buzzer proved to be the game-winning basket in the win over Maranatha Christian.
Trailing 47-46, the Lancers put the ball in bounds with 2.7 seconds left in the game before Waters sank his game-winning shot from long range.
“We have a play where we get the ball to our big man,” recounted Wilson, who scored a team-high 17 points in that contest. “I went around in a screen. He passed it to me and I just shot it.
“It was unbelievable. It was one of those things you can’t find words to describe.”
Wilson said Hilltop was playing its best at the end of the season. “It seemed to start off kind of shaky but we all kind of bonded, started clicking and got hot,” he said.
Olympian will face top-seeded Brawley (25-7) in Friday’s division championship game. The Eagles are on a 15-game winning streak.
“We know we’ll pull off a win if we play hard,” Williams said.
Eagles stunned by first trip to CIF finals, will wait till next year
The shots just wouldn’t fall for the second-seeded Olympian boys basketball team in Friday morning’s 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 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, is holding out for a state playoff berth, though the reigning South Bay League champions would likely play on the road.
San Diego Section
Boys Basketball Playoffs
Open Division
Quarterfinals
Saturday, Feb. 25
(4) Foothills Christian 64, (5) Mater Dei Catholic 57
Division I
First round
Wednesday, Feb. 22
(6) Lincoln 56, (11) Eastlake 52
Division II
First round
Wednesday, Feb. 22
(2) Rancho Bernardo 82 (15) Sweetwater 56
Division III
First round
Wednesday, Feb. 22
(5) Otay Ranch 68, (12) Central Union 45
(4) Point Loma 76, (13) Bonita Vista 65
(6) Montgomery 75, (11) Rancho Buena Vista 64
Quarterfinals
Saturday, Feb. 25
(6) Montgomery 56, (3) Carlsbad 52
(4) Point Loma 62, (5) Otay Ranch 47
Semiinals
Tuesday, Feb. 28
(10) Sage Creek 73, (6) Montgomery 66
Division IV
First round
Wednesday, Feb, 22
(1) Brawley 68, (16) Castle Park 27
(14) Hilltop 49, (3) Maranatha Christian 47
(7) Escondido Charter 67, (10) Lutheran 40
(2) Olympian 86, (15) San Diego Jewish Academy 53
Quarterfinals
Sautrday, Feb. 25
(2) Olympian 82, (7) Escondido Adventist 53
(14) Hilltop 58, (6) Calexico 52
Semifinals
Wednesday, March 1
(2) Olympian 79, (14) Hilltop 70
Championship
Friday, March 3
(1) Brawley 69, (2) Olympian 53
Division V
First round
Wednesday, Feb. 22
(5) San Diego Academy 38, (12) Julian 31
(4) Southwest (bye)
(11) Holtville 57, (6) Bayfront Charter 31
(7) High Tech High Chula Vista 81, (10) School for Entrepeneurship & Technology 44
Quarterfinals
Saturday, Feb. 25
(4) Southwest 63, (5) San Diego Academy 31
(2) Guajome Park 75, (7) High Tech High Chula Vista 66
Semiinals
Tuesday, Feb. 28
(1) Health Sciences 65, (4) Southwest 56
Metro Conference
Boys Basketball Standings
Mesa League
Mater Dei Catholic 12-0, 23-5
Montgomery 7-5, 15-15
Otay Ranch 7-5, 19-12
Eastlake 5-7, 13-15
Sweetwater 5-7, 13-13
Bonita Vista 4-8, 11-18
San Ysidro 2-10, 11-17
South Bay League
Olympian 10-0, 28-3
Hilltop 6-4, 13-18
Southwest 6-4, 13-18
Castle Park 4-6, 7-19
Chula Vista 4-6, 10-18
Mat Vista 0-10, 7-13
Third time is the charm for Lady Crusaders hoopsters
Here’s a bit of prep basketball trivia: The Mater Dei Catholic High School girls basketball team won the state championship in 2009 without winning a San Diego Section championship. Certainly, though, the Lady Crusaders played like champions, as they later proved in Sacramento.
Mater Dei Catholic had a second chance to win a section title in 2014 but once again fell to nemesis Bishop’s.
The Lady Crusaders got a third chance to win a section championship Friday night at the University of San Diego’s Jenny Craig Pavilion – and they didn’t waste the opportunity this time. But, man, was it close.
Mater Dei Catholic, seeded third in the Division I field, hung a 55-54 defeat on fifth-seeded San Marcos to exorcise some past ghosts and, in the process, add a long-sought championship banner in the school’s gymnasium.
MDCHS head coach David Monroe, who had to sigh in relief when it was all over, said he was “very happy” for his team despite what he termed a “hard win.”
“The girls have worked hard all year and deserve to end the regular season with a CIF championship,” he said. “They have adopted the never quit mentality while on the court and it is paying off. They could have easily given up when we were down by 10 points in the game, but didn’t. They pulled it together by challenging each other to make plays, and that they did to win the game.”
At first, things didn’t look promising for the Lady Crusaders, who finished runner-up to arch rival Eastlake in the Mesa League standings.
Mater Dei Catholic sophomore standout Chloe Webb, the team’s leading scorer at 18.8 points per game, failed to score a point in the opening quarter. Monroe has to be thankful there are four quarters in a basketball game as Webb made up for her early scoring dearth with a hot hand in the remaining three quarters.
She proved particularly deadly down the stretch as the Lady Crusaders erased a 47-46 San Marcos lead with just under five minutes to play.
The game featured six lead changes in the second half. Webb scored the deciding basket after grabbing her own rebound shot and converting the missed shot. Webb matched her season scoring average with 18 points in the game after all.
With so much energy expended during the nerve-racking game, victorious Mater Dei Catholic players were speechless after the final horn sounded.
Hugs, cheers and tears told the story.
The Lady Crusaders improved to 21-11 with the hair- (and banner-)raising win; the Lady Knights fell to 19-11 with the loss.
State playoffs
Mater Dei Catholic received the No. 7 seed in this week’s Southern California regional Divisoin III tournament, tipping off the state playoffs Wednesday against 10th-seeded JSerra Catholic in a double-header with the Crusader boys. The action tips off at 5 p.m., followed by the boys game at 7:30 p.m.
Mesa League champion Mater Dei Catholic, seeded eighth in Divisoin II boys field, will test its fortunes against ninth-seeded Harvard-Westlake.
The winners advance to Saturday’s division quarterfinals.
San Diego Section
Girls Basketball Playoffs
Open Division
Quarterfinals
Friday, Feb. 24
(5) Eastlake 45, (4) Poway 37
Division I
First round
Tuesday, Feb. 21
(3) Mater Dei Catholic 47, (14) Helix 30
(4) Imperial 73, (13) Bonita Vista 51
Quarterfinals
Friday, Feb. 24
(3) Mater Dei Catholic 60, (6) Santa Fe Christian 47
Semifinals
Wednesday, March 1
(3) Mater Dei Catholic 54, (2) West Hills 48
Championship
Friday, March 3
(3) Mater Dei Catholic 55, (5) San Marcos 54
Division II
First round
Tuesday, Feb. 21
(3) Calexico 58, (14) Montgomery 55
(5) Canyon Crest Academy 50, (12) Otay Ranch 30
(8) University City 54, (9) Olympian 30
Division III
First round
Tuesday, Feb. 21
(9) Coronado 36, (8) Chula Vista 25
(2) El Capitan 51, (15) Sweetwater 33
Division IV
First round
Tuesday, Feb. 21
(4) Clairemont 57, (13) Chula Vista Calvary Christian Academy 16
(12) Christian 48, (5) San Ysidro 43
Division V
First round
Tuesday, Feb. 21
(9) Mar Vista 46, (8) Gompers Prep 31
(3) High Tech High Chula Vista (bye)
Quarterfinals
Friday, Feb 24
(11) Pacific Ridge 51, (3) High Tech High Chula Vista 42
(1) Maranatha Christian 56, (9) Mar Vista 19
Metro Conference
Girls Basketball Standings
Mesa League
Eastlake 12-0, 23-7
Mater Dei Catholic 9-3, 21-11
Olympian 6-6, 11-15
Bonita Vista 5-5, 12-18
Montgomery 5-7, 9-22
Otay Ranch 4-8, 11-14
Hilltop 0-12, 5-20
South Bay League
Chula Vista 10-0, 14-13
San Ysidro 8-2, 13-8
Sweetwater 6-4, 10-17
Mar Vista 4-6, 15-8
Castle Park 1-9, 6-16
Southwest 1-9, 3-20
