BUCS ADVANCE PAST RIVAL S.D.
You work hard all season, finish second in the Western League — one of the toughest in the county — earn a No. 1 seed, and what does it get you?
A third game with heated rival San Diego High.
Mission Bay and the Cavers split their regular-season meetings and were 3-3 over the last three seasons heading into Tuesday night’s Division I semifinal before a standing-room-only crowd at Mission Bay.
This one was much of the same before a third-quarter Mission Bay flurry helped the Bucs to a 68-62 win.
Top-seeded Mission Bay (23-8) moves to Friday’s championship game at St. Augustine against La Jolla Country Day, which upset No. 2-seeded Del Norte 61-59 in double overtime in the other semifinal.
San Diego (20-11) led 14-11 after the first quarter, but the Cavers turned the ball over four straight times to open the second quarter and fell behind by five. The Cavers had the deficit down to one before Atreju Delacruz hit a baseline 3-pointer to beat the halftime buzzer for Mission Bay.
The Cavers had nine turnovers in the second quarter, and an eight-turnover third quarter by the Cavers led to a 14-2 Mission Bay run and had San Diego trailing by 17.
But San Diego again got the deficit down to six at 6357 with 32 seconds to play before a trio of Gelo Gil free throws, two more by Marcus Korch and a pair of San Diego turnovers closed out the win.
The San Diego rally was fueled by Jaden Wade, Isaiah Marte and Noah Marte.
The coaches — Marshawn
Cherry of Mission Bay and Bazz Fontenot of San Diego — are best of friends, having coached club ball together for seven seasons.
“He knows what I do, and I know what he does, but we still have to stop it,” Cherry said. “That’s the hard part. And the kids know each other so well. That makes it really tough.”
Gavin Girouard led Mission Bay with 24 points — 11 in the third quarter. Lorch added 14, including six thirdquarter free throws. Charlie Hutchinson added 10 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked a pair of shots.
Jaden Wade paced San Diego with 27 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter. Wade also grabbed 10 rebounds.
Noah Marte added 17 points and nine rebounds for the Cavers.
Mission Bay last won 20 games in the 2017-18 season when Boogie Ellis — now at USC — led the Bucs to a CIF title.
Mission Bay beat Orange Glen and Poway to reach the semis.
San Diego beat Calexico and El Camino to earn the right to play Mission Bay for a third time.
Girls semifinal Division V Mar Vista 50, Mission Bay 33:
Kimberly Curran scored 28 to lead Mar Vista to the win and into Thursday’s championship game against the winner of Valhalla-Southwest-El Centro at Otay Ranch High.
Mar Vista is seeded No. 10. Mission Bay was seeded No. 6.