KENTFIELD, CA – With his team down 8-0 early and seemingly sleepwalking, Branson Coach Jonas Honick could be heard muttering his concerns.
“I had a feeling things might catch up with us,” Honick said under his breath and far enough away from his players that they couldn’t hear his concerns.
Honick’s anxiety did not go away quickly as the turnaround took a while, but after trailing 13-7 after one quarter and 19-14 at the half, the Prep2Prep No. 6 ranked and top-seeded Bulls woke up and came alive in the second half to win in a typical Branson grind it out 43-37 victory over fifth-seeded Miramonte-Orinda on Tuesday night at College of Marin.
Branson (29-2) got 11 points from both junior Miles Keefe and sophomore Joaquim Arauzmoore, with Keefe adding nine rebounds and two assists. Marin County Athletic League Player of the Year Peyton Mullarkey was almost a non factor and finished with only five points, but he did have a key three-pointer midway through the third quarter that helped turn things around and send Branson into the final period with a 28-26 lead it never relinquished.
Just how cold was Branson in the first half? The Bulls didn’t score in the first quarter until the 3:25 mark, and the second quarter was even worse, as the host didn’t tally until 2:47 was left until halftime, and that was a single free-throw.
Branson would only manage seven points in both the first and second quarters, but Miramonte, under intense defensive pressure from the vise-like defense Honick and his teams have patented over the years, wasn’t exactly burning the nets. In fact, Miramonte scored their first points of the second quarter with 2:22 left in the half, and despite the iciness of Branson the Mats were never able to take more that a seven point lead which they had on two occasions in the second quarter.
Although their play was never really sharp, Branson had a lot more energy in the second half both on offense, and particularly on defense, where they limited Miramonte to 18 points, and that was the difference.
“We told the guys at halftime being down five at 19-14 is the same as 35-30,” Honick remarked. “So the reality is we were only down two possessions.”
“Since we lost to Marin Catholic we have a four-on-four three-quarters court man-to-man defensive drill,” continued Honick, whose team won the Marin County Athletic League with a 15-1 record with a lone 4-point loss coming on the road at Marin Catholic in late January. “You have to get three consecutive scores and three straight stops to get off the court, and that’s very hard to do. That conditioned us mentally for the second half.”
Miramonte (16-13) got 11 points from both seniors Matt Meredith and Nick Watson.
With the victory the Bull earned career win No. 744 for Honick, and that’s good enough to get him to No. 16 all time according to the Cal-Hi Sports state Record Book. One can only imagine where he’d be had he not taken an 8-year hiatus from coaching.
At around 25 wins a year he could conceivably be No. 2 all time, but that’s water under the bridge and what Honick is thinking about is has next opponent St. Patrick-St. Vincent-Vallejo in the D3 title game on either Friday or Saturday with details to be announced on Wednesday.
Honick wasted no time preparing.
“Already watched film for SPSV,” Honick texted early Wednesday morning. “Definitely beatable but we will have to play much better.”
