Sacred Heart Cathedral better than record
The game plan Friday against top-seeded Mitty wasn’t complicated, said Sacred Heart Cathedral boys basketball coach Sean MacKay.
Control the glass. Get out in transition. Run their threepoint shooters off the arc. Exploit mismatches.
But when you’ve won just 10 of 24 games, finished seventh in the eight-team West Catholic Athletic League and have won only three times since Dec. 29 — twice over last-place Valley Christian — clearly MacKay dealt a louder message before and during his team’s eye-opening 69-65 Central Coast Section Open Division first-round upset win at Piedmont HillsSan Jose.
Not really, he said. More so, it was a belief he instilled throughout all the losing.
“When no one else believes in them, I always do,” he said.
There’s a lot to like, especially the senior leadership of 6-foot point guard Cedric Reed Jr. (13.2 scoring average), Elijah Flowers (8.7 points, 7.5 rebounds) and Osin McCormack (10.4 points, 10 rebounds per game). Junior Oscar Cheng, a 6-8 power forward, is averaging 9.7 points and 8.2 rebounds. There are lots of contributors, including junior guard Kori McCoy (7.9 ppg) and freshman Ray John Jackson, who contributed a couple of key free throws against Mitty.
“It’s a great group of kids who have dealt with a lot of adversity,” MacKay said.
Dealing with losing on the court — even in probably the strongest top-to-bottom league in Northern California — isn’t easy on the psyche.
A 28-point home loss to Mitty on Jan. 23 was a low point. But since that game, all the losses were competitive.
On Wednesday at Independence-San Jose, the Irish get Menlo-Atherton, winner of 20 straight, in a 5:30 p.m. semifinal, followed by Bellarmine versus Riordan at 7:30. Basketball schedule: On Tuesday, the San Francisco girls semifinals are scheduled at Kezar Pavilion, along with 10 divisions — five boys and five girls — of CCS quarterfinal games. On Wednesday, all four local sections continue in semifinal action: CCS boys and girls Open Division, North Coast Section boys and girls (all divisions), SFS boys and Oakland Section boys and girls. Check Scoreboard (Page B6) for pairings. De La Salle wrestling: At James Logan-Union City on Saturday, behind five individual champions — Ben Roe (285), Ankhaa Enkmandakh (160), Mario Franco (152), Dwayne Guerrero (138) and Kyle Parco (132) — De La Salle won its fifth straight NCS wrestling title and 10th in 11 years with 302 points to 187 for runner-up LibertyBrentwood. Parco and Guerrero won their third straight titles. More NCS champions: Other wrestling champions were Devin Garcia (Logan, 106 pounds), Blake Fredrickson (Windsor, 113), Gus Petruske (College Park-Pleasant Hill, 120), Dakota Unpingco (Freedom-Oakley, 126), Trent Silva (Windsor, 145), Tate Bossert (Las Lomas-Walnut Creek, 170), Jack Kilner (Granada-Livermore, 182), Adrian Chavez (Liberty, 195) and Isaiah Chatman (Pittsburg, 220). CCS boys wrestling: Gilroy took its 17th straight team title Saturday at Independence-San Jose by claiming nine champions. The team is led by firstyear coach and current UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier. Gilroy finished with 377 points, followed by Evergreen Valley (207.5) and Los Gatos (160). Metro area champions were Ryan Luna (St. Francis, 106), Carsten Rawls (St. Francis, 182) and Victor Jaquez (Bellarmine, 220). CCS girls wrestling: MenloAtherton (221.5 points) won its third straight title, beating Half Moon Bay (170) and AlisalSalinas (142). Evelyn Cahoon (121), Lauren McDonnell (137), Abby Ericson (160) and Folashade Akinola (189) won individual titles for MenloAtherton.