Mission boys in state final
FAIRFIELD — It first looked as though it was going to be easy. And then it wasn’t. One thing was clear, though: Nothing was going to keep the Mission High boys basketball team from making history.
Bears senior guard Niamey Harris scored 23 points — including the team’s last five — as Mission defeated host Vanden-Fairfield 72-68 to win the Northern California Division 3 championship. In doing so, the Bears (34-1) became just the fourth San Francisco public school boys team to advance to a state championship and the first since 2001.
Mission will play Villa Park of Orange County (28-6) in the Division 3 final at 4 p.m. Friday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
“I’m just really happy for the kids,” Mission coach Arnold Zelaya said. “I’m really happy for the kids. I’m really happy for San Francisco. I’m really happy for the public school system. These kids fight all year, and they don’t get respect, so I’m just happy for them.”
Mission trailed just once — when Vanden made the first basket of the game. The Bears would build a 14-point lead by halftime.
The intermission was extended by about 10 minutes as the beyond-capacity crowd at Vanden High had to be thinned out in the standingroom-only areas of the court.
With 5:12 left in the third period, Mission pushed its lead up to 18 points with a Jamion Wright three-pointer that made it 51-33.
That’s when Vanden began to claw back. The Vikings (30-4) closed the third quarter on a 15-2 run and went into the final eight minutes down by just four, 55-51.
“I give Vanden a ton of credit, because they fought,” Zelaya said. “They could’ve easily laid down and walked away, but they fought and made us work. … Niamey again stepped up huge at the end.”
Vanden got as close as one point, when senior guard Darrell Staley sank his fourth three-pointer of the night to make it 67-66 with 1:13 to play. The Vikings then got a stop and had a chance to take the lead before a steal led to transition and Harris took a pass from Jayden Foston in the open court, converted the layup and drew the foul.
Harris’ three-point play pushed the lead to 70-66 with 32.8 seconds to play. After a quick basket by Vanden’s Jemuarri Bailey, Harris sank two more free-throws with 17 seconds left to close out the scoring.
Joining Harris in double figures for the Bears were Jamion Wright with 15 points, and Foston with 14. Wright, Foston and Harris combined to make 10 three-pointers.