Like two ships passing in the night, the Fremont and Palo Alto basketball teams were headed in different directions the last two weeks of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League season. And while the Vikings drifted further and further south of their destination, the Firebirds sailed boldly to the De Anza Division championship, and straight into the Central Coast Section’s Open Division playoffs.
Tied for first place with just two weeks to go in the season, Palo Alto did its version of the Titanic, striking an iceberg in the form of resurgent Homestead and then sinking to the depths of second place courtesy of a season-ending three-game losing streak.
Meanwhile, the Firebirds were winning 10 of their final 11 games, including their last five in a row to finish 10-2 in league play, a full three games ahead of both the Mustangs and Vikings, who tied for second at 7-5.
As the eighth seed in the CCS Open Division play-offs, Fremont, 18-5 overall this season, has the unenviable task of taking on top-seeded St. Francis (20-4) in its tourney opener Friday night at Santa Clara High School. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.
St. Francis has lost two of its last five games, including a 47-43 loss to Riordan last week that cost the Lancers the outright West Catholic Athletic League championship, leaving them as co-champions with Serra at 11-3.
The winner of the Fremont-St. Francis encounter will play the winner of the match-up between fourth-seeded Sacred Heart (22-2) and fifth-seeded Riordan (15-9) on Tuesday evening at Independence High. The losers of those two games will meet in the consolation semifinals on Tuesday at a time and site not determined at press time (visit cifccs.org for tournament brackets).
Homestead, which closed the season by winning its final three games and six of its last eight, will open its quest for the CCS Division I championship Saturday at Foothill College. The fourth-seeded Mustangs will play either unseeded Wilcox (9-14), 12th-seeded Santa Teresa (12-12) or fifth-seeded Palo Alto (17-7), depending upon the results of their games in the first two rounds.
And in the CCS Division II tourney, 12th-seeded Lynbrook (10-14) was scheduled to take on unseeded Yerba Buena (8-16) earlier this week. The winner of that game was slated to battle fifth-seeded Los Gatos (12-12) on Thursday, with the victor of that tilt advancing to play fourth-seeded Christopher (16-8) Saturday at Santa Clara High.
Fremont heads into its showdown with powerful St. Francis fresh off of wins over Los Altos and Palo Alto in the final week of the SCVAL’s regular season.
Senior guard Mo Abdulrasul keyed both wins, wrapping up the league’s individual scoring title in the process.
Against Los Altos, Abdulrasul sank 10 of 19 shots from the floor, including 3 of 7 from three-point range, en route to a 26-point performance that lifted the Firebirds to a 56-50 triumph.
Jake Burriss popped in 12 points and Omar Shorab dropped in 10 to combine with Abdulrasul to account for all but eight of Fremont’s points in the win. Shorab topped the Firebirds on the boards with 10 rebounds and Burriss chipped in with a team-best three assists.
Fremont put the finishing touch on its regular season championship by toppling Palo Alto 65-57 behind a brilliant 42-point outburst by Abdulrasul.
It was the star senior’s second 40-plus performance in Fremont’s last four games, and raised his league-leading scoring average to 25.2 points per game. After being held to a season-low nine points by Los Gatos on Feb. 23, Abdulrasul closed out the season by averaging 34.0 points per game in Fremont’s final four contests. Abdulrasul topped 20 points in eight of the Firebirds’ 12 league contests, surpassing 30 four times.
Against Palo Alto, the senior sharpshooter connected on 14 of 21 shots from the field, including a season-best 7 of 11 from beyond the arc. He was 7 of 9 from the free throw line.
Ofir Bekker was the only other Firebird to finish in double figures, netting 10 points, while Burriss contributed eight. Abdulrasul and senior Gaurav Gupta shared team rebounding honors with five apiece.
Thanks to Fremont’s defeat of Palo Alto, Homestead was able to claim a share of second place by capping its regular season by toppling Los Gatos 51-35 in its finale.
Hitting on 8 of 10 shots from the floor, senior forward Jay Slaney led the Mustang attack with a game-high 20 points. Seniors Collin Spence and Adityua Reddy chipped in with 12 and nine points, respectively.
Slaney also topped the Mustangs on the boards with 11 rebounds and Spence pulled down eight. The pair also led Homestead in assists with four each.
Lynbrook, which finished 2-10 in the SCVAL’s El Camino Division after a strong 8-4 pre-season, ended the regular season on a high note by besting Mountain View 38-26.
Center Varun Parthasarathy pumped in a game-high 16 points and co-captain Victor Yu tossed in another 10 to lead the Vikings past the Spartans.
Girls basketball
In girls basketball, El Camino Division champion Cupertino leads a contingent of three SCVAL teams into the Division I CCS playoffs this week.
The Pioneers, who finished a perfect 12-0 in league play, come into the tourney as the SCVAL’s highest seeded team (sixth) and bring with them a sparkling 21-3 overall record.
Cupertino was slated to take on the winner of a first round game between unseeded Salinas (11-13) and 11th-seeded Andrew Hill (13-11) on Thursday. The winner of that game advances to Saturday night’s confrontation with third-seeded Piedmont Hills at Piedmont Hills.
Eighth-seeded Homestead, which finished in a three-way tie for second place in the El Camino Division along with Lynbrook and Santa Clara, was set to take on the winner of a first round contest between unseeded Alvarez (15-9) and nine-seeded Evergreen Valley (7-17) on Thursday with the winner of that game advancing to meet top-seeded North Salinas (21-2) on Saturday at Piedmont Hills.
The Mustangs were 7-5 in league play and were 11-12 overall going into Thursday’s game.
Tenth-seeded Monta Vista (6-6 in league, 11-13 overall) was to have played unseeded Alisal (14-10) on Tuesday. The winner of that game was to have met seventh-seeded Carlmont (12-13) on Thursday, and the victor in that game will collide with second-seeded Menlo Atherton (22-5) Saturday at Piedmont Hills, as well.
Lynbrook, meanwhile, was seeded 12th in the Division II tourney and was to have met unseeded Overfelt (8-10) Tuesday. The winner of that game was to have played fifth-seeded Los Gatos (18-6) on Thursday, and the winner of that encounter will meet fourth-seeded Mountain View (19-8) on Saturday at Oak Grove.
Cupertino wrapped up its perfect SCVAL campaign by obliterating Fremont 51-6, before ending the regular season with a 48-46, double-overtime nail-biter over Monta Vista.
Against Fremont, the Pioneers led 30-2 at the half, and shutout the Firebirds in both the second and fourth quarters.
Senior Olivia Wissig and freshman Selena Wang led the rout with 17 and 13 points, respectively. Romy Nguyen added six, Rilizza Isla chipped in with five and both Kayla Kaneshiro and Celina Arranaga popped in four.
The Pioneers’ perfect record was put in jeopardy in their season finale against upstart Monta Vista when the Matadors raced out to a 12-2 first quarter lead and took a 13-point lead into the second half.
But Cupertino, sparked by its defense, rallied to force the game into overtime by limiting the Mats to just 10 points in the third and fourth quarters combined.
Isla pumped in 11 points and Kaneshiro and Arranaga both knocked down 10 to lead the Pioneers to their gutsy, come-from-behind win.
Rhea Rangarajan keyed Monta Vista’s upset bid with a game-high 14 points and Jocelyn Chen chipped in with 11.
Lynbrook concluded its regular season on a high note by surprising Homestead 61-45 behind a brilliant 20-point performance by senior Elaine Ma.
Kimmie Wong and Nicolette Conkin shared team honors for the Mustangs with nine points each.
