California boys basketball championship game previews

DIVISION I, 8 p.m. Friday

Santa Monica  (29-6) vs. Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove) (27-6)

WIN STREAKS: Santa Monica 11, Pleasant Grove 3

STATE RECORD: Santa Monica 0-1, Pleasant Grove 0-0

STATE RANKINGS (MaxPreps.com): Santa Monica No. 12, Pleasant Grove No. 19

TERRIFIC TRIOS: Santa Monica – G Jordan Mathews, G Troy Maloney, F Erron Vaughn. Pleasant Grove — G Malik Thames, F Cole Nordquist, G Matthew Hayes

POINTS PER GAME (ALLOWED): Santa Monica 67.0 (53.2), Pleasant Grove 67.7 (52.2)

GAME ON: Though Santa Monica is listed as 0-1 in state-title games, it's somewhat misleading. The Vikings lost a 26-12 contest to Stockton in 1928, the last time the state championships were held before taking a 53-year hiatus when they started up again in 1981.

Santa Monica didn't exactly breeze through the Southern California regional. In fact it barely survived its opener, defeating Narbonne 73-68 in overtime.

But behind the strong play of 6-3 Cal-bound Mathews, the Vikings put it together and avenged two earlier losses to Loyola in a 53-50 regional final victory behind Mathews, who drilled a NBA-range three-point bucket with 2.5 seconds left. Mathews had a game-high 19 points.

"I thought all week it could come down to that, so I thought to myself, ‘No way we're going to lose to those guys three times in one season," Matthews said.

Maloney, a 6-3 senior, added 17 in the regional finals. Other top players are Vaughn (5-10), Trevis Jackson (6-0) and Chris Smith (6-5).

Pleasant Grove, which surprised top-seed Deer Valley (Antioch), 73-60, is also guard-oriented and led by Thames, a 6-1 point guard averaging 17.8 points per game and 6-foot shooting guard Hayes (14.6).

Hayes had a game-high 20 versus Deer Valley and seemed to have no trouble shooting at Sleep Train, where prep kids often have trouble connecting from the perimeter.

Nordquist, a 6-5 senior, is the team's second-leading scorer at 15.0 and he had 16 points and 12 rebounds versus Deer Valley. Marquese Chriss, a 6-7 junior, and Matthew Smrekar, a 6-0 senior, largely do the dirty work down low for a team that knows and executes its roles beautifully.

"Perseverance is a great word to describe this team," Pleasant Grove coach John DePonte said after the Deer Valley win. "Resilient. They never lost sight of what they had to do. I can't express how proud of them I am."

DIVISION II, 4 p.m. Saturday

Redondo Union (Redondo Beach) (27-8) vs. College Park (Pleasant Hill) (26-5)

WIN STREAKS: Redondo Union 20, College Park 4

STATE RECORD: Redondo Union 0-0, College Park 0-0

STATE RANKINGS (MaxPreps.com): Redondo Union No. 22, College Park No. 83

TERRIFIC TRIOS: Redondo Union – PG Ian Fox, G Derek Biale, G Darrien Touchstone. College Park — F Seb Flores, G Mikey Eggleton, F Joe DeMers

POINTS PER GAME (ALLOWED): Redondo Union 60.8 (50.5), College Park 67.2 (51.2)

GAME ON: Here is truly an underdog tale.

Redondo Union was 10-17 last year, but hired magic man Reggie Morris Jr. to turn things around and he promptly won his third Southern Section title in four years with a third team.

It wasn't promptly per se, as Redondo Union started the season 7-8, before rattling off 20 straight wins behind a balanced and guard-oriented bunch led by Fox (15.4 ppg) and Biale (13.2), a pair of 6-1 guards who have combined for a gaudy 137 three-pointers.

The team's ball-hawking defense — the Sea Hawks average almost 11 steals per game — leads to fastbreak offense. Redondo forced 23 turnovers in a 60-48 regional final win over top seed J.W. North-Riverside.

Touchstone (6-2), Chris Henderson (6-4) and Sebastian Lindner (6-7) are other starters for the Sea Hawks.

"We're playing with a lot of heart and determination," Morris Jr. said. "The 20-game win streak doesn't mean anything. We just have one game to go."

College Park made the NorCal tournament when Division II power Newark Memorial was called up to the Open Division. Once in, the 11th seed (out of 12) defeated three teams on the road by margins of three, eight and three points before scoring a remarkable 93-90 win over top-seed Dublin in the highest-scoring regional final (all Divisions) in NorCal history.

Without a player taller than 6-3 in the rotation, the Falcons rely on ball movement, three-point shooting and sheer tenacity.

In the Dublin game, Flores scored 23 points, Eggleton 21, A.J. Newell 16 and DeMers, the national baseball Freshman of the Year in 2012, had 15.

The hero, of all people, was Peter Schoemann, who hit a 3-pointer with 6.8 seconds left in overtime. As unlikely as College Park's state-title run was, so was the game-winning shot. It bounced off the front iron straight into the air and into the hoop.

"We showed nothing but guts," College Park coach Craig Battle said after the game. "We persevered. We've been doing it all season long."

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