After challenging his team during the early part of the season, Trinity Christian coach Tierrell Sims has watched his Warriors’ squad reel off nine straight wins headed towards the CCS Division 5 playoffs. Trinity Christian is now 17-7 overall, and wound up sharing the MTAL-Coastal title with 22-2 Oakwood, beating the Hawks by 23 points in their second meeting.
On Thursday night, the Warriors wrapped up their regular season with a 97-51 win over Anzar, and senior Jamez Booker put forth another memorable performance. Booker put up an impressive triple-double, scoring 41 points to go with 12 rebounds and 10 assists. More significantly, Booker hit the 1,000-point mark for his three-year varsity career, another important achievement in a breakthrough year for the Warriors, who went through three straight losing seasons prior to this campaign, which has coincided with Sims’ arrival from the central valley.
Even in the midst of a strong run, focused on success in the playoffs, Sims was able to take a moment to reflect on the importance of Booker’s play and his achievement.
“(Jamez) has been a captain, a leader, a warrior all year long,” Sims said. “He had a lot of goals going into this season, and has been already able to accomplish many of them. He told before the (Anzar) game that he was going to score 40 points, and that is what he did.”
With Booker’s milestone now accomplished, the Warriors will turn their focus to the Division 5 playoffs, where they figure to receive a strong seed. Their early losses included play against much larger schools at the Kings County Classic in Hanford, Sims’ former stomping grounds, and recent action has not only included the big win over Oakwood, but also a 31-point win over 23-3 Alma Heights, who not only went unbeaten in the PSAL, but also won the league’s tournament title.
“We are playing really well right now,” Sims added. “We just need to keep it up.”
The Warriors also won a coin flip with Oakwood for the MTAL-Coastal’s automatic qualifier berth. Considering their potential seeding, the auto berth virtually ensures they will get to host a first-round playoff game.
Serra likely plays way into Open Division
Following an overtime loss to Sacred Heart Cathedral in late January, it appeared that Serra would be fighting for one of the top seeds in the Division 2 field for the upcoming playoffs.
The Padres have now won three of their last four, however, including big time victories over Saint Francis and St. Ignatius, making Serra an attractive pick for the Open Division, especially now that the CCS will allow up to six teams from one league in the elite field, up from the previous limit of four teams.
Los Gatos continues late-season push
The low point came during back-to-back losses to Gunn and Los Altos in mid-January, just two games removed from a loss to Cupertino. Since then, however, the Wildcats have lived up to early-season projections.
The early part of the season featured a win over MBL-Gabilan champion Palma, prior to the January struggles. The late part of the season now features a five-game winning streak, including a big win over Palo Alto earlier this week. Junior small forward Dylan Belquist had a game-high 19 points in the win over the Vikings, including three three-pointers, while junior shooting guard Alex Braken-Guelke added 16 points, including eight in the fourth quarter.
Menlo clinches outright title
Menlo School wrapped up the outright WBAL title this week, posting double-digit wins over Harker and Crystal Springs Uplands.
St. Francis and Santa Cruz will play for SCCAL crown
Santa Cruz upset Aptos in the SCCAL tournament semifinals on Thursday, setting up a championship game against regular-season champion St. Francis-Watsonville.
The Cardinals lost twice to Aptos in the regular season, but pulled off the 41-39 win in the tournament, and have won five straight since an eight-point loss to St. Francis at the end of January. Henry Terrazas hit a buzzer-beating shot from the baseline to avoid overtime and pull off the upset victory against the Mariners.
St. Francis won both regular season meetings against Santa Cruz, and advanced to the title game of the tournament with a 59-50 win over San Lorenzo Valley.
