Publication Date: Friday, February 27, 2004
CCS BASKETBALL
Eastside Prep hopes upgrades pay off
Eastside Prep hopes upgrades pay off
(February 27, 2004) Panthers open defense of their boys' and girls' Division V titles after playing strong nonleague schedules this season
by Keith Peters
Two banners hang in the Eastside Prep gymnasium that recognize the league championships won by the boys' and girls' basketball teams.
The boys' banner lists Christian Private Schools Athletic League titles won from 1998 through 2003, while the girls' CPSAL crowns run from 2000-03. During these years, the boys' league record is 85-0 while the girls' is 42-0.
As impressive as those winning streaks are, they also are the reason there will be no additions to those championship banners. Not this year, not ever.
Prior to this season, boys' coach Chris Bischof and girls' coach Gretchen Seeley decided their schedules needed to be upgraded in order for their respective teams to be better prepared for the postseason. In order to do this, both squads would play only half the CPSAL regular-season schedule.
The trade-off for better competition meant Eastside Prep forfeited the rights to league titles.
"The history in deciding to give up a league title begins with a couple of things," said Seeley, the school's athletic director. "The boys have never lost a league matchup and the girls have been undefeated the last four seasons."
Moreover, the Eastside girls won their six CPSAL games by an average of 69 points this season while the boys' winning margin was 50.6 during their 8-0 run through half the schedule.
"I do not think it is healthy for the kids on either side of these mismatches to be in competition in such an unfair way," Seeley said. "I figured if we could reduce our league play to a single round robin, this would allow both teams to seek out more balanced competition with additional games."
Despite giving up their automatic Central Coast Section playoff berths, which they had earned in previous years as league champions, the Eastside Prep boys and girls nonetheless qualified easily for the postseason. The boys (24-1) received the No. 1 seed in Division V and will open Saturday at home against No. 8 Fremont Christian (13-11). The girls (20-4) earned the No. 3 seed in Division V and will take on No. 6 Valley Christian-Dublin (16-8) on Saturday at Mercy-San Francisco.
Both the boys and girls are defending section champions and are favored to advance to Tuesday's semifinals. The boys will face the winner of No. 4 Mid-Peninsula (19-6) and No. 5 King's Academy at Sacred Heart Prep, while the girls will meet No. 2 Sacred Heart Prep (12-14) at Mercy-San Francisco.
The Division V championship games will be Saturday, March 6, likely at the Leavey Center on the Santa Clara University campus.
Both Eastside Prep teams reached the NorCal finals last season and both lost - the girls to eventual state champion Convent of the Sacred Heart, 53-45, and the boys to big and tall Modesto Christian, 39-38. This, after playing full schedules in the CPSAL.
Seeley and Bischof know their move away from lopside league play has helped their respective squads this season.
"I am sitting at my desk having just finished our first league matchup, where the girls won by 66 points," Seeley said in January, "and I popped my head up to check out the boys' score (69-6 at the end of the third) and I wonder is this really enough? If I am charged with the responsibility of promoting and teaching sportsmanship, then this (reduced league schedule) is somewhat of a remedy, but not really."
The Eastside Prep girls scored 90 or more points in four of their six league games and scored no fewer than 81. The Eastside boys tallied 90 or more points twice in league. In their lowest-scoring game (59 points), the Panthers won by 31.
For Bischof, his only remedy to keep the CPSAL games within reason was to play his starters barely more than a quarter each game. That's hardly the preparation needed for the CCS and NorCal tournaments.
Had the Panthers remained in the CPSAL with its 16-game schedule, Bischof's team would have had to pull out of tournaments.
But, Bischof said, "We wanted to continue to play against larger schools."
The boys' only loss was to Seaside, 60-53, in the second round of the Alisal Tournament. Since then, the Panthers have won 21 straight. Seaside, by the way, is seeded No. 7 in Division III following a 17-9 regular season.
Eastside's expanded nonleague schedule allowed the Panthers to compete in the Fremont-Sunnyvale Holiday Classic for the first time. On the way to winning the title, the Panthers routed Pioneer, 52-38. Pioneer beat Palo Alto in the finals of the Soquel Winter Classic. Paly, in turn, upended Santa Cruz in the semifinals.
Pioneer (20-6) is the No. 2 seed in CCS Division III, Palo Alto (25-3) is the No. 2 seed in Division II and Santa Cruz (28-2) is the No. 1 seed in Division II. Eastside Prep, is ranked ahead of all three of them in the most recent NorCalPreps.com Top 20 poll.
Bischof would like to schedule even tougher competition next season. For now, however, the change this season has been beneficial.
"It's not ideal," Bischof said, "but it's better than it has been the past few years."
The Eastside girls, meanwhile, fell to Santa Cruz (69-57), NorCal-ranked Urban (55-49) and 2003 state runnerup Mission Prep (60-45) in three of its four losses.
Seeley, however, had to feel better about those losses than this year's 98-24 romp over Mountain View Academy.
Boys Division II
Second-seeded Palo Alto (25-3) has advanced but No. 9 Gunn (15-13) has not, following first-round action Wednesday.
The Vikings received some strong inside play from 6-foot-5 senior Oystein Aukland (16 points) and fine outside shooting from 6-6 junior Brian Baskaukas (18 points) in overcoming No. 15 Santa Clara, 58-45, at Paly. It was the Vikings' 13th-straight victory and the 24th time in 28 games they've held the opposition under 50 points. Sophomores Jeremy Lin and Cooper Miller combined for 17 points.
Paly got off to a slow start and led by only a point at halftime. A 25-8 splurge in the third quarter blew open the tight game and earned the Vikings a second-round berth opposite No. 10 North Salinas on Saturday (6:15 p.m.) at Oak Grove High. North Salinas (18-10) upset No. 7 Aptos, 65-57. Saturday's winner will advance to the semifinals Tuesday, likely against No. 3 Mitty, at Oak Grove.
Gunn, meanwhile, had its season cut a game short following a 66-44 road loss to No. 8 Westmont (20-8). Had the Titans won, they would have faced No. 1 Serra on Saturday.
Senior Chris Mugler led Gunn with 17 points, but freshman scoring standout Peter Jordan was limited to just five. Jordan was coming off a 29-point performance in his previous game and was averaging nearly 20 points over his past four outings.
Girls Division II
Gunn (9-13) got 13 points from senior Kaja Martin in a 44-35 victory over No. 17 Yerba Buena on Tuesday night in the Titans' gym. Gunn, seeded No. 16, pulled away with a 16-9 advantage in the second quarter.
Prospects for going any further didn't look good for Gunn, which last night played at top-seeded Mitty (22-4).
Fifth-seeded Palo Alto (21-6), meanwhile, opened last night against No. 12 Woodside (15-11). The winner advances to Saturday's 1 p.m. Division II quarterfinals against either No. 4 Leland or No. 13 Los Gatos at Mt. Pleasant High in San Jose.
Girls Division V
Fourth-seeded Castilleja (22-6) takes on No. 5 Redwood Christian (17-7) on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Mercy-San Francisco. The winner plays No. 1 Pinewood on Tuesday, also in San Francisco.
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