January 13, 2006

Back to the table of Contents Page

Classifieds

Palo Alto Online

The streak is over

by Keith Peters

Jamar Williams grew up wanting to be like his older brother, Jeremiah, a starting guard on the Eastside Prep boys' basketball team.

Jamar spent three years at the school, from sixth through eighth grade, and rooted for Jeremiah, who as a senior in 2002-03 helped the Panthers go 28-2 and reach the Northern California Division V finals.

During Jeremiah's stay at Eastside Prep, the Panthers never lost a Christian Private Schools regular-season or league playoff game. Jamar wanted to do the same.

"That was my plan, to keep the streak going," Jamar said.

Those plans, however, didn't work out for the younger Williams.

"I was hoping to stay there," he said. "I never thought I was going to leave."

Williams did leave, however, and moved to nearby Mid-Peninsula. Once there, Williams switched his goal from keeping the Eastside Prep streak alive to ending it.

On Tuesday, Williams scored 17 points and single-handedly took control of the game while leading Mid-Peninsula to a streak-shattering 52-32 triumph over visiting Eastside Prep.

What had started eight years earlier and lasted through 96 regular-season CPSAL basketball games was over in less than two hours. So, too, was the Panthers' even more impressive string of 111 victories that included league playoffs.

While Eastside Prep came into the game with the best all-time league record in state history, the Panthers fell short of the No. 2 league winning streak in state history, 98 straight by Banning from 1983-1991. The ongoing state record is 113 by Fresno's Washington Union.

"My hat's off to Chris for doing that," Mid-Peninsula coach Curtis Haggins said of Eastside coach Chris Bischof's remarkable achievement. "That was one hell of a streak."

Bischof is the school's founder, principal and boys' basketball coach from Day 1 when the Panthers didn't have a gym. Instead, they practiced outside on an all-weather court and played all their games on the road.

"The streak is amazing because it illustrates that different guys and different teams have worked hard to accomplish lasting success," said Bischof, who knew coming into the season that the streak likely would fall. "Every game in league will be tough for us. Our goal is to get better and have some fun doing it. We're not thinking about streaks these days."

Haggins, however, must have had the streak on his mind during a team meeting before the game. He wrote the names of Mid-Peninsula's seniors on the chalkboard and then put forward a challenge.

"I'm tired of losing to those guys," Haggins said. "Let's get it done."

And the Dragons did, in convincing fashion.

"I'm happy for the team and myself," Haggins said. "I'm been on the end of some ugly losses to them."

One such setback came last season when Eastside Prep erased an eight-point deficit in the final 90 seconds and won on a three-pointer by Marquis Pickrom at the buzzer, 49-46.

When Pickrom didn't return to the Eastside Prep team this season, Haggins knew his team had a chance to end the streak. The Panthers (1-1, 7-11 were left with a very young, very inexperienced and very short team that had no starter taller than 5-foot-11.

Williams and fellow junior Bruce Grady joined with senior Ben Capon in making the big victory possible for Mid-Peninsula (1-0, 10-3).

Capon scored six of his 14 points on two three-pointers in the opening quarter as the Dragons grabbed a 17-7 lead. When Eastside switched from a zone to a man-to-man defense, Williams used his speed and quickness to tally eight of his game-high 17 points in the third quarter for a 41-22 lead. The 6-5 Grady, whose younger brother Anthony plays for Eastside Prep, put the finishing touches on the triumph with six of his 16 points in the fourth quarter to deny Eastside Prep any hopes of rallying once again.

"We never really focused on the 96-0 streak," Haggins said. "We just wanted to beat them. But, it was nice to be the team that ended the streak."

In games Wednesday:

Gunn remained atop the SCVAL De Anza Division standings with a 39-36 win at Los Gatos. The Titans improved to 3-0 (12-5 overall) while winning their fourth straight and eight of their past nine. The triumph at Los Gatos was Gunn's first in the past four years.

The Wildcats did their best to shut down Bay Area scoring leader Peter Jordan. The Gunn junior came in averaging 25.6 points a game. Los Gatos played a zone and collapsed four defenders on Jordan every time he touched the ball in the paint.

Jordan was held to 17 points, but Michael Wong helped pick up the slack by making three treys and finishing with a career-high 13 points.

"I have never made more than one three pointer in a game," said Wong. "I have been working hard in practice and this time it translated to the game."

The game featured four ties and 11 lead changes and neither team led by more than four until four minutes remained in the game when Gunn scored seven in a row, the final two coming on a driving layup by Wong to put Gunn up 37-28 with three minutes to go.

Wong's basket turned out to be the winning margin, but Gunn would have to sweat out the last three minutes as two three-pointers and a basket brought the Wildcats to within 37-36 with 32 seconds remaining. Jordan was fouled with 10 seconds left and made both free throws.

Los Gatos missed a pair of three-pointers in the final seconds.

Gunn was without starting point guard Nicky La Fleur, who was again out with the flu.

In another De Anza Division game, Palo Alto (2-0, 15-1) tuned up for tonight's showdown with visiting Milpitas (7:45 p.m.) with a 57-42 win at Mountain View on Wednesday.

The Vikings streaked to a 31-14 halftime lead and cruised. Senior Kheaton Scott led Paly with 16 points.

In PAL South Division openers Wednesday, Menlo-Atherton (1-0, 11-5) got 14 points and 11 rebounds from senior forward Gorjan Hrustanovic in a 51-37 win over visiting Half Moon Bay.

The Bears took 30 shots in the paint, 70 shots overall and grabbed 18 offensive rebounds, but made it to the foul line only once. M-A outscored the Cougars by 14-2 in the fourth quarter.

Menlo (0-1, 11-3) fell behind quickly when visiting Sequoia opened the game with an 11-0 run. The Knights played catch up from there and eventually fell, 60-53.

Menlo couldn't contain Sequoia's Dominic Stewart, who scored 17 of his game-high 32 points in the first half. The Knights chipped away at their deficit and got to within 10 at the start of the fourth quarter.

Menlo's defensive pressure sparked a 13-0 run in the third quarter. Menlo's Blake Schultz hit a three-pointer and Beau Heidrich followed with a steal and another trey to get the Knights to within one with under a minute to play. Sequoia, however, answered that with six straight free throws to secure the win.

Heidrich missed much of the first quarter and all of the second due to foul trouble. He finished with 13 points while Schultz led with 17.

In games Tuesday:

Sacred Heart Prep (4-0, 8-3) won its 66th straight Private Schools Athletic League game by rolling over host Valley Christian-Dublin, 78-49. Junior Michael McMahon led the Gators with 23 points and five steals while senior Pat Coffey added 12 points, 13 assists and five steals.

Pinewood (1-2, 6-5) got 19 points from Tyler Mosher and 14 from Michel Nofal in a 46-37 triumph at King's Academy.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.