2019 marks the first time that the CCS finalists in all five enrollment divisions are guaranteed a trip to the state tournament in the Open Division era, and the two teams that punched their tickets on Thursday night did so in dramatic fashion.
Mountain View beat Aragon, 80-75 in double overtime, and Leland came back from down six in the fourth quarter for a 57-54 victory over Leigh.
As anticipated in our previews, the first of the two semifinals turned into a tremendous one-on-one battle between MV’s Sam Tobin and Aragon star Sam Manu, but it was the Spartans who got just enough secondary scoring to emerge victorious and advance to their second section title game in three years.
Jake Pappas split a pair of free throws with a second left in regulation to tie the game for Mountain View (22-4), and though Manu tied it at the end of the first overtime with a late layup, the Spartans finally created separation in the second overtime. Manu held a one-point edge over Tobin, 31 to 30, but the third-seeded Spartans got 19 points from Jailen Daniel-Dalton and 13 from 7-foot-1 center Will Dominguez. Noah Salah scored 13 and Matthew Mukai scored nine for seventh-seeded Aragon (12-15).
Leland (24-2) got 21 points from Sohan Kshirsagar and 14 from Shane McKnight, including a layup to break a 51-51 tie with just over a minute to go. The top-seeded Chargers also got 11 from Fuad Alemu and nine from center Preston Weber, while fourth-seeded Leigh (13-13) got 11 from Dylan Johnston, 10 from Luka Kise and nine from Noah Kirsch.
