Sports

Mustangs Poised to Take on NorCal Challenger

Basketball team faces Center High of Antelope in regional quarterfinal at 7 p.m. Thursday.

They are champions twice over already this season, but they’re thinking about three being a charm.

Players on the boys basketball team are practically celebrities in Novato by this point based on their Marin County Athletic League title, their North Coast Section title and their 29-4 overall record — the best in the school’s 43-year history. But now, as they embark on a run to the state Division III championship (for medium-enrollment schools), it is a single-elimination bracket and stiff competition. It starts with Thursday’s 7 p.m. game against Center High of Antelope in a NorCal quarterfinal game at San Marin’s Hank Moroski Gym.

"It is one and done from this point on,” coach Craig Pitti said. “I know we will be ready to go and I know our students and community will be, too. What an amazing night to think that we are hosting a state tournament game on our floor.”

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The NCS champion Mustangs are the No. 2 seed in the CIF State NorCal Basketball Playoffs and the game will be the first state tournament game held at San Marin since the school was built in 1968. Another sellout crowd is expected, especially after the turnout of about 1,500 San Marin fans over at St. Mary’s College on March 5 for the NCS Division III championship victory over El Cerrito. 

Center (25-7) comes in as the No. 7 seed out of 12 NorCal Division III teams. Center, located just north of Sacramento, was10-0 in the Pioneer Valley League and finished second in the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs behind the No. 1 seeded team in the NorCal Division III bracket, Sacramento High (26-5). 

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The Center Cougars are led by 6-foot-8 center Chad Haysbert, who averages just under 15 points and eight rebounds per game. Pitti, who saw Center defeat Paradise on Tuesday night in a first-round NorCal game, said Haysbert is “a skilled big man with a myriad of post moves.”

The Cougars’ backcourt is the foundation of the team, Pitti said. Junior shooting guard Chris Smith averages 14.5 points and teams well with point guard Daniel Smith and small forward Devon Taubodo. Pitti said the Cougars employ a three-guard attack, using all of them in full-court pressure to generate easy hoops.

"Once again, the big key for us will be tempo,” Pitti said. “Everybody loves to watch a fast-paced, up-and-down game, but that really isn't our style. We don't look to walk it up every time, but the fact is all the teams left in the draw are up-tempo teams. They play that style all the time. If we can control the pace of the game, we will give ourselves a chance to win.”

San Marin’s two most recent victories, upsets over Bishop O'Dowd and El Cerrito, were against teams that love to play at a furious pace and averaged about 65 points per game. The Mustang defense held them to a combined 90 points.

“If we are going to make a run this week, we must stick to what got us here," Pitti said. "We will see a bunch of different presses from (Center). We will need to stay disciplined with our press break. With the intense atmosphere the other night, we kind of got away from our press break but we only had 16 turnovers. With El Cerrito's athleticism and physicality, I didn't think turnovers really hurt us too much."

The Mustangs used the past few days to recover from bumps and bruises sustained in the El Cerrito game. Pitti is expected to stick with his core group of players: point guard Ryan Zirkle, shooting guard John Seavey, small forward Chris Glennon, power forward Jimmy Burrows and center Stuart Wesonga.

Wesonga, San Marin’s dominant 6-7 senior, has been unstoppable in the playoffs. Against El Cerrito, he had 26 points and 27 rebounds — statisticians had as high as 30 rebounds and as low as 25 — and he made several thunderous dunks, a timely block in the final minute and a critical call of a timeout during a battle for a ball that would have resulted in a jump ball in favor of El Cerrito. Wesonga had 26 points and 25 rebounds in the stunning victory over O’Dowd — the state’s No. 1 Division III team — on March 2.

"Stuart's battle with Haysbert should be a good one,” Pitti said. “They play two different styles, but whoever takes the lead in that battle will go a long way into deciding who wins this one."

San Marin enters Thursday’s matchup with a perfect record on its home court this season. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and the game is expected to sell out by 6:30 p.m. If the Mustangs can win Thursday, they will play the winner of O’Dowd vs. Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Redwood High in Larkspur.

The game is scheduled to be televised live by Novato Public Access Television (Comcast Channel 30) and Novato Patch plans to have a live blog with updates every few minutes.


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