DANVILLE — Josh Warren made his final game one to remember, scoring a career-high 29 points, but a near triple-double by Nate Rutchena, 16 points off the bench from Matt Musselman, excellent free throw shooting and a few controversial calls gave Monte Vista a 67-60 win over Warren’s San Ramon Valley team.
The Wolves needed a .500 league record or .500 overall record to qualify for postseason play, and they came up just short against one of the best schedules in the entire North Coast Section as their season ended Thursday night on their home floor.
Tied at 60 after Sebastian Scott split a pair of free throws, SRV won a scramble for a loose ball and would have had possession with 57.4 seconds left, but a technical foul was assessed to JP Murphy for taunting. That gave Musselman two free throws, and he hit them both. Warren grabbed the rebound on the ensuing possession, but was called for a travel as he fell to the ground. That gave the Mustangs another chance to go up two scores, and Rutchena hit one of his signature elbow jumpers to help put the game away.
“It wasn’t really the shot Coach Jones wanted, but I saw the shot clock was going down,” the two-sport star said. “I had to rise up with confidence, and it went in.”
Trailing by two possessions, San Ramon Valley (12-14, 5-8 EBAL) tried and missed a 3-pointer at the other end, and Rutchena was fouled with a chance to put the game away. A second technical foul on Murphy, assessed for unknown reasons, gave him four free throws, and he made three of them to finish his night with 20 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.
It was a reversal of fortunes for Monte Vista (18-7, 9-4). Two years ago, needing a win at SRV to reach the postseason, the Mustangs fell 49-43, with head coach Nick Jones getting ejected after two late technical fouls. While it was a relief to send the Wolves fans walking out of the gym quietly, rather than seeing them rush the court, he wasn’t one to take pride in how the game ended.
“It was nice to win, but I wish it didn’t have to end like that,” he said.
The late technical fouls dampened the mood on what was otherwise a festive night, with a heartwarming pregame ceremony to induct assistant coach Hans DeLannoy into the San Ramon Valley Athletic Hall of Fame. DeLannoy, a longtime teacher and coach at the school, was recognized in a ceremony that featured speeches from both SRV head coach Brian Botteen and Jones.
“He’s been a lifelong friend,” Jones said. “I was honored that they wanted me to speak and walk out with him and Brian.”
At the conclusion of the ceremony, DeLannoy was carried off the court by his former players, just as he was in 1981 when his Gunn Titans came up just short in a CCS Championship against powerhouse St. Ignatius.
The ceremony, combined with SRV’s Senior Night, delayed the start of the game 40 minutes, but once it got underway, it turned into the sort of game befitting of one of the Bay Area’s best crosstown rivalries, with 11 lead changes and five ties.
Until the final seconds, the only time either team led by more than five was when the Wolves used an 11-2 run to take a 47-36 lead in the third, with eight of those 11 points coming from Warren. The other three came on a three by Zach Isaak, set up by a Warren offensive rebound and assist.
“I really wanted this one badly,” the 6-foot-4 Australian said. “It was my last game on this court, and I’ve never made the playoffs.”
His 29 points and nine rebounds came against a team that prides itself on defense and held Dublin star Robby Beasley to just 11 points two nights earlier.
“I knew Warren was going to come out blazing,” Jones said. “He made some tough shots and some tough plays.”
A three-year varsity player, Warren’s career ends without a postseason berth, though he, Isaak and Manish Peters, the only three seniors on the Wolves’ roster, helped right the ship after a difficult 9-17 season the previous year.
“We’ve made substantial progress,” Botteen said. “Last year’s group had a lot of toxicity in the environment for a lot of different reasons, and that makes it hard for development.”
With just the aforementioned three seniors and a group of underclassmen that includes Scott, Michael Santich and Sam Warren, Josh’s sophomore brother, there’s reason to believe SRV’s playoff drought won’t last much longer.
Jones was also impressed by his competition, saying, “their strength of schedule’s off the charts. They should be a playoff team. They’re not because of the ridiculous qualifications. They challenged themselves and played a tough schedule, other teams didn’t, and it’s unfortunate that they can’t move on.”
If not for the 16-0 Mustang run that spanned the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth, the Wolves probably would be moving on. Trent Stechschulte got the lead back down to nine with a layup, Jack Stallard scored on a putback, Musselman hit a three and Rutchena picked up one of his nine assists on a Jason Lai bucket to close the third down by just two. A pair of Rutchena free throws tied the game 20 seconds into the fourth, a Stechschulte three gave MV the lead and the run was capped off on a lay-in by Anthony Santa Maria, his lone points of the night. Of the six field goals during the 16-0 surge, Rutchena assisted on four of them.
Warren and the Wolves weren’t done just yet, though. He’d score his team’s next five points to cut it to 54-52, and after two Musselman free throws, Scott would cut the lead to a single point with a three-point play, his first score of the night.
Both Scott and Santa Maria lit up the scoreboard when the teams met back on January 18, but the two were held in check with defensive adjustments on both sides.
Another two Musselman free throws restored a three-point lead for the ‘Stangs, but Scott would come back down and score again to cut it to 58-57. Warren hit two free throws for the lead with 2:57 to go, though Rutchena would knock down a pair with 2:16 left to put his team back on top. Scott tied it with 1:52 to go by splitting two free throws, setting up the conclusion that will be remembered more for the whistles than the big plays.
After an empty MV possession, Scott was called for an offensive foul, knocking him out of the game with 1:12 left. The following loose ball went out off Musselman, and the Wolves would have had a chance to take the lead and manipulate the clock so that they’d have the final possession, but the technical fouls took that away.
“All I know is it was 60-60 in an emotional game, and I made some comments that guys were jawing away. The refs said, ‘we should give warnings,’ but they didn’t give warnings and they T’d our guys up,” Botteen said. “That’s hard to stomach. They stole our opportunity to win. It should’ve been up to the players, and I don’t think it’s fair to Monte Vista either.”
The late free throws capped off a night on which the Mustangs were nearly flawless at the line, making 17 of their 20 attempts. The three misses were on their final three tries, all after the outcome had been decided. Rutchena made seven of his eight attempts and Musselman converted on all eight of his.
“During the timeout in the third, we said the only way we were going to win was to play harder and play with confidence,” Musselman said. “Confidence at the line, confidence shooting threes. That’s what we had to do, and that’s what we did.”
Musselman, who was in the vicinity of both technical fouls, was as perplexed as many of the fans in a surprisingly below-capacity crowd when asked about the game-altering calls.
“I have no idea,” he said. “My teammates kept asking me, and I seriously have no idea.”
It’s not to say that the calls decided the outcome — the Mustangs could have easily gotten a stop and hit a shot in the fourth quarter or won the game in overtime — but they certainly helped shift the needle, all while mirroring how the Mustangs’ season had ended when Musselman was a sophomore.
“We were in their exact position, pushing for the playoffs. It was a heartbreaking loss,” he said. “I’m glad it got reversed in our favor.”
Musselman himself had no small part in that reversal, playing one of his smoothest overall games to help offset problems that could have arisen for the Mustangs with Santa Maria in foul trouble.
“You’ve got to play as hard as you can,” he said. “That’s the one thing my dad always tells me, and that’s what my grandpa always preached. I never got to meet him, but my dad always tells me I’m a lot like him.”
Isaak and Murphy each scored 10 for the Wolves, who hit seven 3-pointers after missing every shot from beyond the arc when the teams met at Monte Vista three weeks ago.
