MORAGA, Calif. – Folsom High had it all going on: revenge, a 29-game win streak, a sparkling 31-1 record and seemingly best of all, a 13-7 first-quarter lead.
The Bulldogs were patient on offense, terrors on defense and to top it off, they had a racous contingent of more than 700 fans roaring their approval at spiffy McKeon Pavilion on the campus of St. Mary’s College.
But their opponent, the Monte Vista (Danville) Mustangs, combated it with ingredients that had brought them to this CIF North Region Division I semifinal game: poker player poise, a smart and rugged match-up zone defense and a team brand of basketball that inventor James Naismith himself would have given a Fonzi thumb’s up.
A 23-2 run starting midway through the second quarter was pretty impressive also.
The result was probably Monte Vista’s most impressive win of the season, a surprisingly lopsided 63-42 victory, creating Happy Days indeed for the city of Danville, which will send two teams to Saturday’s NorCal finals at Arco Arena in Sacramento.
Monte Vista’s top seeded girls earlier romped over Lincoln (San Francisco) earlier in the day.
Monte Vista's Zach Ertz had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
File photo By Dennis Lee
As usual, senior point guard Brian Barbour, who might just be displaying his talents at McKeon the next four years, led the way with 21 points but he got plenty of help by under-appreciated 6-foot-3 senior Tyerelle Phillips (18 points, 11 rebounds) and a combined 20 by Zach Ertz and Taylor Brewster.
The second-seeded Mustangs (28-3) advanced to their first NorCal finals where it will face defending state champion and No. 28 nationally McClymonds (28-1).
Folsom ended a stalwart season 31-2. The Bulldogs were actually perfect minus one opponent – Monte Vista – which handed them their only other defeat 58-45 on Dec. 5. They were the up-tempo Bulldogs’ two low totals of the season.
“To beat a team like that by 21 is pretty amazing,” Barbour said. “Especially since they were gunning for us. We just needed to stay composed early, weather the storm and let the game come to us.”
After Barbour drilled one of his three three-pointers and an outside jumper to take a 7-4 lead, Folsom showed why it won the Sac-Joaquin Section title, scoring on an as-good-as-it gets fastbreak: a quick outlet to Scott Moore, who took two dribbles and sent a perfect bounce pass to Patrick Akins, who swooped in for a deuce.
That started a 9-0 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Akins and the Bulldogs looked serious.
“Up-tempo is what we wanted,” Folsom coach Mike Wall said. “We didn’t want a half-court game because we knew how effective Monte Vista runs its offense.”
Folsom continued in control after a couple more acrobatic shots by super 6-3 sophomore Kori Babineaux (team-high 12 points) to take a 19-13 lead, when everything changed midway through the second quarter.
Brewster drilled a 3-pointer and Phillips, an offensive rebounding machine, converted a three-point play and Ertz, a 6-5, 240-pound beast who will be playing tight end at Stanford next year, powered in another deuce.
Just like that, Monte Vista was up 21-19, and up for good. Ertz created space with his strong frame, took a pretty interior pass by Mark Appel and scored again, and then Barbour, as he’s prone to do added a dagger, a tough 17-foot shot under heavy duress at the buzzer to finish off a 12-0 run and give Monte Vista a 25-19 halftime edge.
“We felt in control but knew the third quarter was the key,” Ertz said. “Folsom is a second-half team so we had to come out strong.”
When the Mustangs opened on an 11-2 run, keyed by three buckets from Phillips, the streak had increased to 23-2 and this one was essentially done.
Folsom showed tremendous grit and skill to fight back from a 19-point, second-quarter deficit to defeat Franklin (Elk Grove) 52-50 in the SJS finals on Saturday.
Folsom's Tony Johnson was contained most of the night.
File photo by David Steutel
But Monte Vista was not Franklin or even the Monte Vista team it defeated Folsom in early December. The Mustangs were on top of their game and bent to get to Arco Arena.
Folsom’s leader, point guard and leading scorer Tony Johnson (18 points per game) stopped the run with a driving layup. But they were his first points of the night — he finished with nine — and the Bulldogs could never get more than a four-point run the rest of the way.
Brewster did most of the defensive work on Johnson, who he called “one of the elite players in Northern California.” Barbour said Johnson “is a great competitor and a class act. It’s fun playing against a tough player like him who doesn’t talk trash.”
“It wasn’t just me on him, but our entire goal was to keep the ball out of his hands and not let him shoot,” Brewster said. “I just think overall we were ready for them in every aspect.”
Wall agreed.
“It was a combination of that Monte Vista is an extremely good and well-coached team and us not bringing our A game,” he said. “I thought our shot selection was poor right from the start and though we were making them, it gave us a false sense we could make those same shots later and that didn’t happen.”
The Mustangs will play a bigger, faster and quicker opponent Saturday in McClymonds (28-1), which went unbeaten last year, has won 60 of 61 over two seasons and 78 of 81 over three seasons.
Taylor Brewster and the Mustangs shared the ball superbly.
File photo by Dennis Lee
“If we play like tonight, then we have a chance,” Phillips said. “But it’s going to be a big challenge.”
NOTES: There were some juice before the game when Wall didn’t shake hands with Monte Vista’s starters during player introductions. It visibly upset Monte Vista coach Bill Powers even after Folsom’s assistant coaches explained that it’s a policy Wall implemented early in the season.
After the game, when the two head coaches met, Powers was still not happy with Wall’s explanation.
Wall told us that he's against pre-game hand shakes for two reasons. The first is strictly superstition. “Right after the first Monte Vista game we were playing someone, I was busy with some administrative stuff and didn’t get to shake the opponents’ hand and we won,” Wall said. “We won a couple more without shaking hands and it just became superstitious.”
He said the second part is that the pre-game greeting is often disingenuous. "Your opponent is just trying to be buddy-buddy but it’s not real," he said. "Look, I feel like let’s play the game, show good sportsmanship throughout and then shake hands afterward and say great game and good luck,” Which is what Wall and the Bulldogs did during and after. “I meant it, they played a great game and I told their guys to go get McClymonds.”
Walls said some of the Monte Vista players refused to shake his hand afterward but not Barbour.
“He seemed like a great guy after the game to me,” Barbour said. “He seemed really sincere so I don’t think the pre-game thing was a big thing at all. If that's his policy I get it.”
E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com.
Monte Vista 63, Folsom 42
Folsom 13 6 10 14 - 42
Monte Vista 9 16 23 15 - 63
FOLSOM (31-2): Kori Babineaux 6 0-0 12, Patrick Akins 2 0-0 5, Brandon Babineaux 2 0-0 5, Tucker Horwath 2 0-0 4, Tony Johnson 3 3-3 9, Scott Moore 4 0-0 8. Totals 19 3-3 42.
MONTE VISTA (28-3): Tyerelle Phillips 8 2-2 18, Zach Ertz 5 1-2 11 Brian Barbour 7 4-4 21, Taylor Brewster 3 2-2 9, Mark Appel 2 0-1 4. Totals 25 9-11 63.
3-point goals: Akins, Barbour 3, Brewster.
Look for complete state semifinal round-up, match-ups of finals and predictions Friday afternoon.
