|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
by Keith Peters
Palo Alto Online Sports
If the Mitty boys’ basketball team was still smarting from those back-to-back losses to Palo Alto in the 2005 and ’06 Central Coast Section championship games, well, the Monarchs certainly got some payback for them.
Second-seeded Mitty dominated in all facets of the game while rolling to a 62-39 victory over the No. 3 Vikings in a CCS Division II semifinal on Tuesday at Foothill College.
“They thoroughly outplayed us,” said Paly coach Bob Roehl. “When you get outplayed like that, you have to give the other team credit.”
Palo Alto (19-7) had only 11 points in the first half and turned the ball over 10 times during that time as Mitty (19-9) made a statement that it is a team to be reckoned with now, and in the future as the Monarchs return four starters next season.
Mitty advances to Friday’s section championship game against No. 1 seed St. Francis (26-2) at Santa Clara University at 8:30 p.m.
It was evident from the start that Palo Alto was going to be in for a long night as the Vikings had difficulty just getting off a good shot while never getting a second-shot opportunity as Mitty swept the boards.
“We thought we could drive and get some fouls, but we couldn’t,” said Roehl, who watched his team go without a field goal the entire second quarter.
The Monarchs, meanwhile, either made their first shot or followed misses in while racing to a 32-11 halftime lead. That effectively ended Palo Alto’s hopes of an upset. In the second quarter, the Vikings had more turnovers (seven) than points (four).
What did those 11 points mean to Roehl?
“That we get beaten by a lot,” he said.
The Vikings righted their sinking ship in the second half and played the Monarchs fairly evenly — Mitty held only a 30-25 scoring advantage. The Monarchs pulled four of their starters to begin the fourth quarter, but Paly rallied to trim its significant deficit to 47-29, forcing Mitty to return its starters to the floor.
Mitty’s talented 6-foot-6 freshman Aaron Gordon (brother of former Mitty standout Drew) threw down his second dunk with 4:01 left to play for a 56-30 lead, the Monarchs’ biggest of the game.
Despite the lopsided loss, Roehl thought his team’s second-half performance better represented the program than in the first half.
“We played the second half to compete,” he said. “And we did. We played like Paly basketball should play, so I’m very proud.”
Roehl was emotional as he spoke those words, tears welling up in his eyes. He took over the team six games into the season and pretty much started from scratch. He had to get to know his players and somehow meld them into a team in a very short time.
He did just that. After taking some lumps early, the Vikings battled their way to am 11-1 record during their championship run in the SCVAL De Anza Division. As the season progressed, the Vikings got better and followers began making comparisons to this team and the 2006 squad that won the CIF Division II state title.
Roehl was an assistant coach in ’06 and made a large impact on those players. His presence this season also was felt as the Vikings played unselfishly and like a team. The squad came a long way in a short time, thus Roehl was moved by the sudden end to the season on Tuesday.
Mitty simply had more talent, more quicknesss and more firepower. The Monarchs shot well and dominated the boards. To the Vikings’ credit, they never gave up.
Palo Alto junior Davante Adams led his team with nine points while senior Joseph Lin added seven. Gordon paced Mitty with 14 points and 16 rebounds while Stephen Meade, Mitty’s only senior starter, also had 14 points. The Monarchs improved to 48-19 all-time in CCS play, tying Palo Alto (48-24) for third place for most all-time section victories. The No. 1 boys’ team all-time is Riordan (74-18) while St. Francis is second (58-14).
Five Palo Alto seniors walked off the court Tuesday — Brendan Rider, Niklas Wahlberg, Steven Kerr, Kevin Brown and Lin. The Vikings will return six — Adams, Max Schmarzo, Bill Gray, Tori Prati, Charlie Jones and freshman E.J. Floreal. It’s a solid group, certainly something for Roehl to work with next season.
The Vikings, however, know that Mitty may be even better next season. The future was on the floor for both teams Tuesday night.
Boys’ Division IV
Sacred Heart Prep advanced to its third CCS championship game since 2006 with a thrilling 55-54 victory over No. 3 seed Santa Cruz (19-10) at Hartnell College in Salinas. The No. 2-seeded Gators (21-5) will a 13-game winning streak against No. 1 Palma (23-3) for the section crown on Friday at Santa Clara University at 4:45 p.m. Palma advanced with a 50-44 win over No. 4 Harbor.
Sacred Heart grabbed a five-point halftime lead but trailed by one entering the final period after scoring just six points in the third. The Gators trailed by two points with seven seconds to play when junior Reed McConnell hit a three-pointer to give SHP a one-point lead.
With four seconds left, Santa Cruz called a time out. The Cardinals had to go the length of the floor to score, but didn’t get a shot off.
The Gators got their usual solid production out of Reed and Will McConnell, who combined for 23 points. But, it was sophomore Cole McConnell who came through in a big way, as well, as he made five 3-pointers and produced a season-high 17 points — scoring nine of his team’s first 19 — to help carry the Gators to their third victory over Santa Cruz this season. SHP also prevailed at home on Dec. 19 and in the Palma Tournament on Dec. 23.
Girls’ Division IV
Fifth-seeded Sacred Heart Prep saw its postseason run end in a 64-28 loss to top-seeded Santa Cruz (23-5) in a section semifinal on Tuesday in Santa Cruz. The Gators (10-18) had trouble with the Cardinals’ press in a game matching SHP’s inexperienced freshmen and sophomores against a home team with the veteran experience of eight seniors. SHP freshman Helen Gannon led her team with 10 points and seven rebounds while fellow freshman Melissa Holland contributed seven rebounds.
I watched the game last night, and was surprised that there was no change of Paly defensive strategy coming out for the second half, even after falling so far behind in the first half. No press, not even a change to a tight man-to-man — Paly just stayed in a zone and let Mitty take as much time off the clock as they wanted on each possession. (A full court press was started with 6-7 minutes left, with Paly down by so much there was not enough time to make it up.) There also didn’t seem to be any change on offense (e.g., running off screens to open up 3-pointers). Maybe neither would have made a difference in the outcome, since Mitty was strongly outplaying Paly, but doing something different was the only chance at being competitive.
I also watched the game last night. No offense to the coach, but that was a terribly coached team. Almost as if the parents in the stands were the puppet masters and the indulgent kids played the part. Only a few played defense, nobody was any good making decisions. Who is that coach? Who is even the athletic director? It is clear this team is a terrible underperformer and wonder where the parents are in terms of holding this coach to account…
Dear Devin,
You draw far too many generalizations about people and a community from a mere basketball game.
The team won the upper division of the Santa Clara Valley conference. How is that ‘underperforming’?
Do you know *anything* about coaching??!! ‘Paly Fan’ offered reasonable criticisms; but you are simply shooting from the hip.
Where do you get the notion that parents are ‘puppet masters’? That the kids are ‘indulgent’ (I assume you mean lazy, and that they were overly indulged by their parents.) ‘Only a few’ played defense: Mitty recruits from the either Bay Area, and has a continuity which is the envy of every public school, and most private schools. Mitty’s players’ skill level is almost always above and beyond every public school’s. That might have something to do with what you took to be as a lack of effort on defense.
Please note that Paly won the State Championship in 2006. The head coach from that team, Peter Diepenbrock, is no longer coaching the Paly team, but is still a teacher at Paly. However, the AD, Earl Hansen, has not only been around for a long time, but is himself the coach of the Paly football team, which not many years ago competed for the State Championship in the Open Division.
Your conclusions are specious. You should be very careful in your use of stereotyping, or in drawing conclusions from limited data or experience.
Mitty is a better team. The coach did a great job with the kids. This is not a state championship team. Winning SCVAL was a huge achievement. Congrats to Mitty. They were much better.
I agree, Paly’s BB team is not on the level of the top four teams from WCAL, who are the final four in divisions 1 and 2 in the CCS playoffs — and are all private schools that have a big advantage over public schools. (The final four in the open division of football last season were also all private schools, and Paly was the only public school in the final four in volleyball in division 2.) The fact that Paly has competed at the state level in BB and football the last few years is amazing. Anyone know if Paly will be moving to division 1 (based on enrollment) next year? It would help to get out of the same division as Mitty (#2 in the nation in volleyball; in BB, Aaron Gooden will be there for the next three years, and will be better than his brother).
I was at the game where play blew out mills in the 4th game of the season. By 20. Kids who were non factors and minimal contributors in that game got substantial time after the coaching change. Mills lead sacred heart cathedral in the last minute last night. Mills defeated st. Ignatius in the CCS playoffs. mills played bellarmine to the wire the week before they played paly. Paly lost to burlingame in a competitive game early in the season also prior to the coaching change… Burlingame defeated serra the following week. Something happened after the coaching change. Paly was blown out by cathedral, Mitty, and san Ramon valley. They did not compete. Paly winning a weak league ( gatos was blown by st Francis, homestead by bellarmine)was not much of an accomplishment considering their coaches comments that they had no preparation for the likes of Mitty. But of course… That is not true … Paly not only played cathedral but played against and trounced (mills) teams that competed against and beat wcal teams …. palys schedule prepared them for their showdown with Mitty …what did not prepare them was a group of coddling parents and the paly administration that caved to the parents and their self entitled kids.