Mt. Miguel traded in its Division IV football championship for a division basketball title after rushing past the top-seeded Raiders (28-3) on Feb. 22.
The Matadors (23-8) won seven of their final eight games to bounce into the Division IV championship game.
Mt. Miguel eliminated 15th-seeded Sweetwater, 76-57, in the opening round on Feb. 14, then defeated seventh-seeded Clairemont, 89-69, in the quarterfinals on Feb. 17. The Matadors then gored third-seeded High Tech High Chula Vista, 80-72, in the semifinals on Feb. 20.
Mt. Miguel finished 8-2 in Grossmont Hills League play to finish runner-up to crosstown rival Monte Vista in the league standings.
Senior Thaddeus Boudreaux earned honors as the MaxPreps Player of the Game in both the semifinal win over High Tech High Chula Vista (23-5) and in the final against Southwest.
Boudreaux had 24 points and six rebounds in the win over HTH-CV. He poured in 26 points, including three three-pointers, and grabbed 10 rebounds in the championship game.
The Matadors took control early in the final with a 15-8 first quarter lead while expanding it to 37-20 at halftime. Both teams off-set one another with 15 points in the third quarter as Mt. Miguel carried a 17-point lead into the final quarter.
The Matadors out-scored the Raiders 18-13 in the fourth quarter to finish up with a 22-point victory.
Senior Mekhi Sydney dropped in 19 points to finish second in team scoring on the night behind Boudreaux. Eight players overall scored for the division champs: senior Sean Abram (eight points), junior Hamad Elhamad (six points), junior Braylen Cardwell (four points), senior Vincent Jones (three points) and fresh¬men Issa Baudler (two points) and Jasen Hughes (two points).
Sydney had four assists.
This was the fourth time Southwest had advanced to the division final under head coach Steve Selland — loss in 1999, wins in 2018 and 2019 and a loss last weekend.
“The result of this game obviously hurts in that when we advance this far and then get completely dismantled, we are left searching for answers, but can’t come up with too many,” Selland said. “We just couldn’t stop them, especially a couple of their guys who played outstanding — hitting shots from all angles.
“Offensively, we were unable to match them with our own offensive deficiencies, especially being unable to finish drives to the basket. Also, we have depended so much on the three-pointer this season, yet they took that away from us, as we got few attempts and only hit on two of them.
“Physically, we may have been subpar. It was a quick turn-around, having to play CIF Saturday night, Tuesday night and then Thursday night in Division IV. A key player Aaron Rosillo hurt his knee in the semi-final, but courageously played and did his best in the final. However, none of that is an excuse; they simply were the better team that night and beat us. We had a great season that will be remembered around these parts (South County) for a long time.”
Mt. Miguel received the lofty No. 2 seed in the Division V regional bracket. The Matadors were scheduled to host No. 15 New Designs University Park (24- 3) in Tuesday’s opening round. Winners advance to Thursday’s second round.
Lion’s brew
Monte Vista’s San Diego Section Division III boys basketball championship date against the top-seeded Olympian Eagles on Feb. 23 turned out to be a class reunion as both Monarch head coach Mike Tully and Eagles head coach Marty Ellis were teammates at Monte Vista from 1989-93. The duo made a run to the CIF finals in 1992 but fell short against Torrey Pines.
Ellis bested his best friend in this year’s finals as Olympian — off to a school-record 20-0 start — bounced back from three losses in a four-game stretch in Metro- South Bay League play to win seven consecutive games to claim the championship trophy.
The Eagles eliminated 16th-seeded Mission Vista, 81-35, in the opening round, then topped x-seeded St. Joseph Academy, 76- 59, in the quarterfinals. Olympian dealt fourth-seeded Mira Mesa a 60-33 setback in the semifinals to draw a second rematch against Monarchs in the championship round.
The Eagles previously defeated the Monarchs, 61-51, in a non-league game on Jan. 2 after opening the season with a 51-50 verdict on Nov. 20.
The third meeting again went to Olympian as freshman Tristan Anderson led the Eagles with 18 points while sophomore Jordan Walker dropped in 11 points and sophomore Sammell Humphries reached double digits with 10 points and led the winners with 14 rebounds.
For Monte Vista, Jalen Brown topped team scoring with 13 points; Dorian Fillmore collected 11 points while Yousif Al-Asady contributed six points.
The Monarchs won this year’s Grossmont Hills League banner with a 9-1 league record. They won seven games in a row to advance to the division championship game.
Monte Vista tipped off the playoffs with a 62-43 win over 15th-seeded Granite Hills (13-12), then topped sixth-seeded Westview, 53-41, in the quarterfinals. The Monarchs roared with a 74-67 semifinal victory over 15th-seeded Central Union (16-13).
“I am very proud of our team this year as, at one point in the season, they were 7-7 and not very connected as a team,” Tully said. “They were able to buy-in and mature some over the course of the next 17 games where they went 16-1 to reach the finals.
“Team goals prior to the season was to win 20 plus games, win league, get a top four seed, and win CIF. They accomplished all but one. However, in that rollercoaster ride they became better people. Myself and my assistant coach, Darryl Sykes were extremely proud.”
Despite placing runner-up in the section finals, the Monarchs earned the No. 8 seed in the Southern California Division IV regional playoffs and were scheduled to host No. 9 seed Estancia (23-9) on Tuesday.
The regional finals are March 5, followed by the state championship game on March 7. Chatsworth is the No. 1 seed in the division.
Climbing the mountain
Grossmont’s girls team finished as Grossmont Hills League co-champions with Helix Charter as both teams deadlocked with 8-2 league records ahead of El Capi¬tan (7-3 in league).
A five-game winning streak propelled the Lady Foothillers into the division championship game. Grossmont tipped off the section playoffs by crushing its opening two opponents — 15th-seeded Mt. Carmel by a score of 77-34 on Feb. 13 and seventh-seeded San Marcos, 66-26, on Feb. 16.
Junior Kieren Hayden led Grossmont with 18 points while freshman Aakash Price followed closely behind with 17 points in the opening-round win over the Lady Sundevils (8-21). Senior Amethyst Price contributed 10 points.
Aakash Price keyed the Lady Foothillers with 17 points in the quarterfinal-round win over San Marcos (12-18) while Hayden had 12 points. Amethyst paced the defense with 11 rebounds.
Grossmont clobbered sixth-seeded Oceanside, 61-44, in the semifinals on Feb. 21 as Aakash poured in 24 points and Amethyst Price had 13 points and 10 rebounds against the Lady Pirates (19-9).
The championship game remained close throughout with the Lady Dons (21-11) holding a 10-7 advantage after the first quar-ter and 24-21 edge at halftime. Cathedral Catholic took another three-point lead with a 14-11 scoring run in the third quarter. The teams each scored 13 points in the final stanza as the Lady Dons captured a six-point victory.
Hayden had 13 points (nine off three treys) in the loss while Amethyst Price had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
“The group of athletes we have this season is truly something special,” GHS girls coach Grace Campbell said. “Every single one of them brings that competitive and will-to-win edge.
“We got here by taking one game at a time and day by day. Players bought into our system and worked hard countless hours. We understand distractions are easy to come by, however, they have done a great job ignoring the distractions and keeping our goals in sight. We remain humble, continue to grow and compete.
Campbell stressed the Lady Foothillers play “team basketball.”
“We have several players who have become standout team leaders: Zoe Price , Kellan Hayden and Aakash Price , Kieran Hayden and Jailyah Fleming. They have all stepped up and displayed pure leadership. I’m very proud of this group of girls.”
Fourth-seeded Grossmont drew a home game in Tuesday’s opening round of the Southern California Division IV regionals against 13th-seeded Santa Paula (22-9).
Almost famous
Teams advancing to the semifinals included No. 4 Valhalla in the Open Division girls water polo playoffs, No. 1 El Capitan in the Division II girls water polo play¬offs, No. 10 Granite Hills in the Division IV boys soccer) playoffs, No. 3 El Cajon Valley in the Division V boys basketball playoffs and No. 4 Valhalla in the Division III girls soccer playoffs.
Three of the eight Open Division teams in this year’s girls water polo playoffs were from East County. Besides Valhalla, Helix Charter received the No. 6 seed while Grossmont received the No. 7 seed.
