The host Mitty Monarchs were in for a shock Saturday night when the Newark Memorial Cougars ran up a large first-quarter lead and point guard Joey Frenchwood seemed to be on fire from behind the arc. But the Monarchs came back to defeat the Cougars, 63-51 in a NorCal Regional opening-round game, after moving at a slower offensive tempo and playing tighter defense.
Mitty, in pursuit of a third consecutive state title, now travels to face Modesto Christian (29-3) in the NorCal semifinals on Tuesday.
Frenchwood stunned the Monarchs (27-5) early on, hitting four 3-pointers and had 14 points in the first quarter. Newark (23-8) had an 18-5 lead at one point, thanks to forced turnovers and Frenchwood’s 4-for-4 shooting from 3-point range.
“Frenchwood had it going early. We had to adjust. He had (14) of their points in the first quarter so that was pretty much our main goal,” said Mitty forward Brandon Abajelo. “If our hands were down, he was just going to shoot, so we had to make sure our hands were up and overemphasize getting into him.”
Mitty began pressuring Frenchwood and making better passes. The momentum of the game shifted as center Aaron Gordon hit inside shots and Mitty outscored Newark in the second quarter, 19-11. Frenchwood made only one 3 and was shut out in the third quarter, to finish with 19 points.
“We stopped turning the ball over. We were too speedy at the beginning of the game. They were double- and triple teaming me so we were just throwing the ball around the gym, and once we slowed down it was all good,” said Gordon. "I dragged the double team out onto me. I passed the ball and then drove to the basket, or I found a different opening. We just had them scramble the entire game.”
This strategy appeared to work well, as Mitty had a tremendous 22-6 third quarter run to establish a 48-35 lead. The Monarchs had three blocked shots, one of which forced the Cougars to commit a shot-clock violation.
Point guard Connor Peterson made a difficult reverse layup. He later drove up-court, dished it to shooting guard Davis Messer, who got it back to Messer who sank a long 3 from the right elbow of the perimeter. Point guard Matt McAndrews also got in on the action, rolling in a breakaway layup after Gordon stole the ball and launched it to him.
Newark rarely shot the ball and began committing careless turnovers.
“Offensively, we had better movement where we were attacking and weren’t soft with the ball,” said Mitty coach Tim Kennedy. “Newark’s a heck of a team. They run their system, play good defense. We knew we were going to have a battle. They were very physical. When we took care of the ball and were able to play some defense, it made it a little bit easier.”
Mitty clung to a 10-point lead through the fourth quarter. Cougars guard Jo Jo Zamora, a transfer from Serra, sank a 3 at the top of the arc early on and Matthew Thomas followed up with a pump fake and difficult jumper. But a slam dunk from Gordon off an inbound and consistent Monarch rebounding prevented Newark from reducing the deficit.
Gordon finished with 14 points, 17 rebounds and four assists. Messer had 11 points and Peterson had 10. For Newark Memorial, Frenchwood finished with 19 points and Chandler Rockwell had 10.
