SALINAS, CA — Not much has changed this year for Palma basketball player Jamaree Bouyea except for one thing.
“I guess you could say I found my killer instinct,” Bouyea said.
The 6-foot-2 junior point guard has evolved from being an organizer and game manager who ran the offense his sophomore year to this year becoming without question the top player in Monterey County.
Bouyea helped lead the Chieftains to a perfect 12-0 record in the Monterey Bay League Gabilan Division and was Most Valuable Player one year after senior teammate and Cal State East Bay signee Wyatt Maker earned MVP honors.
“Leaps and bounds,” Palma coach Kelley Lopez said of the growth of Bouyea from last year to this year. “I think a big part of it was his confidence and finally believing in himself.”
As a sophomore on varsity with players that were already established, Bouyea just did his job without wanting to step on anyone’s toes. But this year he stepped up his game.
“Jamaree is one of the most humble kids out there,” Lopez said. “Extremely quiet confidence and at the end of the day whether he scores 30 or scores two with 10 assists and 10 rebounds. For him the outcome of the game is what matters most.”
Bouyea leads Palma in scoring, assists, steals, 3-pointers made and is often tasked with guarding the opposing team's top perimeter player.
The junior takes it in stride and makes Lopez’s and his assistants jobs easy.
“Some nights we need him to get 20, some nights we need him to guard the best defender on the other team and rebound,” Lopez said. “He will do whatever we ask and does it with a smile on his face and enjoy the game the whole time.”
Palma (26-4), which defeated West Campus of Sacramento 58-56 last Saturday in the California Interscholastic Federation NorCal Division IV title game, will be making its first state title game appearance since 1993.
The Chieftains closed the game on a 14-0 in the last four minutes of the game to edge West Campus.
Coming back from double-digit deficits is nothing new to the Chieftains.
In its NorCal second-round game, Palma trailed Mission by 11 points at the half but came back to win the game.
“We learned to never give up,” Bouyea said. “Always work your heart out and work your hardest. Against West Campus we never gave up and came back and won.”
The Chieftains learned some valuable lessons when they took their lumps playing in the Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs this year.
Palma entered CCS riding a 16-game winning streak before suffering its second biggest loss of the season to Serra — which will also compete for a CIF State title on Saturday — by 23 and Palma lost for the second time in three contests this year to Half Moon Bay.
Even Bouyea didn’t see this NorCal playoff running coming especially winning the program's first NorCal title in 23 years.
“I didn’t,” Bouyea said of Palma reaching state after losing its two Open Division playoff games. “After we beat Summerville and blew them out I said ‘guys we can make a run for state’ and ever since that we’ve been working hard in practice and winning games.”
Palma will take on Southern Section champion Harvard-Westlake of Studio City on Saturday at noon at Sleep Train Arena, home of the Sacramento Kings of the NBA.
This will be Bouyea’s first time playing in an NBA arena; however, the Chieftains have some experience playing in a D-League arena this year.
Back in late December, Palma competed in the Santa Cruz Warriors NorCal Invitational and won the Gold Division title. The Chieftains will look to use that experience on Saturday against Harvard-Westlake.
More so Bouyea is looking forward to just playing on the same court players like DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon Rondo call home.
“It’s going to be fun playing in an NBA arena,” Bouyea said. “It’s a big court and probably a lot of fans so it will be fun.”
Like how he leads Palma in assists, Bouyea is hoping to give the Chieftain seniors its best gift imaginable in their final game putting on a Palma uniform — a state title, which would be the school's first since 1992.
“It’s really big because I want the seniors to have the best year possible,” Bouyea said. “To win state they would be very happy — it couldn’t be any better.”
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Ryan Silapan can be reached at rsilapan@prep2prep.com follow him on Twitter @RyanSilapan
