SACRAMENTO — In an age where the allure of private schools and so-called “academies” have a monopoly on top basketball talent, the Elk Grove Thundering Herd showed that it’s still possible to succeed with the local kids.
A senior class led by point guard Ameere Britton, Jordan Hess, DaJon Lott and Karlos Zepeda went out with a bang as Elk Grove held off Foothill (Orange County), never leading by more than nine but never giving up the lead to the Knights in the second half for a 62-56 victory in the CIF Division II championship.
“That’s how public schools have to compete,” Elk Grove head coach Dustin Monday said. “You get those kids that’ll stay together, fight through the rough times and the down times and learn and grow as a group.”
Every member of the all-senior lineup, rounded out by Isaiah King and supplemented by Grant Golonka off the bench, all had individual moments in the spotlight. Britton started out hot with eight points in the first quarter, Golonka hit an early three and grabbed a key loose ball, Hess scored 10 in the second quarter, Lott had 12 rebounds and four blocks, Zepeda made nine of 10 free throws in the final quarter and King grabbed a key offensive rebound off his own missed free throw to help hold off the Knights, who stayed in the game the whole way despite shooting just 3-for-18 from 3-point land.
“You can’t win games like that, but at the end of the day, we’ll go out with a regional championship and second place in the state,” said Foothill head coach Yousof Etemadi, who was born in Afghanistan. “We just kept fighting and fighting. These guys don’t give up.”
Cruz Billings scored a game-high 23 points for Foothill (31-4), including a pair of free throws with 2:41 left in the third quarter to cut the EG lead to 34-33, but the Herd responded by closing the quarter on an 8-1 run, getting five straight points from Britton and Hess’s third and final 3-pointer. Britton only scored on free throws in the second quarter after his monster start to the game, but added seven more from the floor in the third.
“Jordan started making big shots and they had to spread out and guard other guys,” Britton said of his success after the Knights had keyed on him during the second quarter.
Zepeda scored all 17 of his points in the second half, including 14 in the final quarter to ice the victory. His transition three made it 49-43 with 4:59 left, and he made four separate trips to the line in the final 1:59 as Foothill tried to extend the game.
With a 2019-20 campaign as sophomores, the COVID-delayed 2021 season, an abbreviated summer layoff and a 2021-22 season led by Monday, an Elk Grove alum himself, the jubilant scenes in the postgame celebrations were the product of a team that had spent an inordinate amount of time together over the past 12 months.
“I see them more than I’m taking care of my own kids at home,” Monday said. “I spend three hours at practice with these guys, I get home at 6:30 and my kids’ bedtime is 8 o’clock.”
The only non-senior to play at all for Elk Grove (28-6) on Saturday was Vinny Gonzales, a sophomore who saw just under four minutes.
Britton finished with a team-high 20 points, going 8 of 10 at the line, and Hess scored 14. Carlo Billings, Cruz’s younger brother, scored 11 and Jacob Horton added 10, but the combination of cold shooting and a 33-24 rebounding advantage for the Thundering Herd, fueled by Lott’s authoritative presence in the paint, was too much to overcome.
