Mission wins section for 4th season in row
The Mission boys basketball team won its fourth straight San Francisco Section title Friday night, beating Lowell 58-51 at Kezar Pavilion.
It’s the school’s 13th section crown. Mission has won six titles in seven years and seven in the past nine, all under head coach Arnold Zelaya.
Ben Knight scored 23 points, Kamiri Smith added 15 and Robert Lee 10 as the Bears (22-8) won their 14th straight game, three of them over Lowell (22-10), including a 75-44 rout two weeks earlier.
U’Jah Pratt, a 5-foot-11 senior, had only two points but added six steals, four rebounds and four assists while becoming the first Mission player to win four straight titles.
“It’s a great accomplishment, and I’m proud of all the hard work these guys have put in,” Zelaya said. “But I warned them, this was going to be a much tougher game than a couple weeks ago. This wasn’t going to be the same (Lowell) team. Coach (Rob) Ray does an amazing job of getting them prepared.”
Zelaya noted last year’s section title game, a 41-40 Mission win over Lowell that followed two double-digit wins for the Bears over the Cardinals. It was part of Mission’s 35-1 season that ended with the Division 3 state title.
“We scored more points than Lowell that night, but they really won the game,” Zelaya said. “Tonight we definitely earned it, but Lowell really made us work.”
The Cardinals trailed by 10 in the fourth quarter before twice cutting the deficit to three behind Abhishek Khadka (17 points) and Jonathan Lee (12 points). Khadka hit two three-pointers and had nine points in the fourth. But Mission hit nine free throws in the fourth quarter to pull it out.
CENTRAL COAST SECTION
Bellarmine 66, Mitty 58: West Catholic Athletic League Player of the Year Jake Wojcik didn’t score a basket in his team’s Open Division semifinal win over St. Francis on Tuesday. The 6-foot-4 senior guard made up for it Friday with eight buckets, including four three-pointers, en route to a game-high championship Bells 24 (24-3) points at Santa claimed as Clara the topseeded the University. Kendall Stubblefield added 14 points and Nathan Metzger 10 against the Monarchs (11-16), who beat Bellarmine in last year’s Open final. Riley Grigsby had 18 points, Hekili Jordan 13 and Devan Sapp 10 for Mitty. Sapp, who made eight three-pointers in a semifinal win over Palo Alto, missed his only three-point attempt Friday. Bellarmine will likely be a top seed in the NorCal Open Division tournament next week. Mitty will be in the tournament, but what division is unclear.
NORTH COAST SECTION
Heritage-Brentwood 71, No. 1 Clayton Valley-Concord 66: In the Division 1 final at St. Mary’s, Jacob Williams sank three of his five threepointers in the fourth quarter, including a dagger from the corner with 45 seconds to go that lifted the Patriots The fourth (28-2) quarter to their saw first three NCS lead title. changes and three ties, the last of which was 66-66 with a little more than two minutes to play. Clayton Valley (26-4) had several chances in the last 45 seconds to cut into a five-point not get with a shot Heritage 17 points, to fall. lead, but Williams it but was could finished senior forward Jonathan Ned who led the Patriots with 25 points. Clayton Valley was led by Garrett Pascoe’s 18 points, and guard Sinjin Speer scored 14 off the bench. Heritage will find out Sunday if it will be drawn to the Open Regionals. Division “If it of does the CIF (go Northern that way), then we earned it, and that’s where we’ll go,” Heritage coach Pat Cruickshank said. “If that’s what it is, that’s what it is. Good for us. We earned the chance to play with the best, and we look forward to it.”