CIF high school basketball: Elk Grove boys make hometown proud with first CIF state title

SACRAMENTO — Coaching high school sports is a huge sacrifice. Especially if you're married. Crazy long hours. Skimpy pay. Lots of bus rides.

But when you coach a team like Elk Grove boys basketball, it's all water under the bridge. An inconvenience. A blip.

So said Thundering Herd coach Dustin Monday after his team won the school's first CIF state championship Saturday with a determined and gritty 62-56 Division II triumph over Foothill (Santa Ana) at Golden 1 Center before some 5,000 fans, all of whom were rooting for the hometown team.

Do-everything guard Ameere Britton had 20 points and seven rebounds, and sharpshooters Karlos Zepeda and Jordan Hess with 17 and 14 points, respectively, on a combined five 3-pointers in the cavernous NBA arena. "It's been a long four-plus months," said an exhausted Monday. "We miss a lot of time with our families. It's hard. But I thank these guys for letting me be a part of all of this. They gave us the ultimate gift for that sacrifice."

Like most of the season, it wasn't easy.

The Knights (31-4), a battle-tested bunch, who had its own journey. They lost in the Southern section semifinals to Long Beach Poly, then went on a "revenge tour" to win four straight regional wins by margins of 8, 1, 5 and 5 points.

They got 23 points from Cruz Billings (8 of 17 from the field), 11 by Carlo Billings and 10 by Jacob Horton. They pounded the Thundering Herd down low — 36 points in the paint — and forced 16 turnovers.

"We were on a revenge tour but we came up short," said Cruz Billings. "Personally I didn't think we'd get to this point. But props to our guys." 

Said Monday: "Any time you face a team from Southern California you know you're in for a fight. We felt like this was a 'pick-em' game." In the end, Elk Grove (28-6) was just too tenacious. 

It too was defeated in the section semifinals, but rebounded with four regional home wins by 7, 4, 2 and 6 points. The suburb, about 15 miles south of Sacramento, has a strong history of tough kids and strong players, among others, Bill Cartwright who graduated from there in 1975.

Britton, a 6-foot-2 senior, was the catalyst of this group, Monday said.

"We just have a bunch of warriors in this group," he said. "Ameer is the head of the monsters. He personifies it. A rising tide raises all ships."

In this case, Elk Grove was a thundering ship, to mix metaphors, and Britton raised them to an unprecedented level.

That said, he fouled in the final minute when the game was still in question. But Zepeda (9 of 10) connected from the line and 6-8 DaJon Lott Jr. (12 rebounds, four blocks) controlled the paint.

"It was agonizing," Britton said about watching from the bench. "But I had no doubt we would get it done."

And they did.

Foothill -    10, 14, 10, 22 - 56