San Marcos boys basketball opened the CIF-SS Div. 2 playoffs with a bang, dominating the early stages and earning a 69-57 victory over Calabasas High on Wednesday night inside the Thunderhut.
The Royals, who have now won 10 straight games, will look to keep it rolling in the second round. They will remain at home as well, playing host to Rancho Verde on Friday at 7 p.m.
“We’re the senior team now. Last year, we had basically no seniors that played, and this year we’re a veteran-led team,” San Marcos head coach Matt Jordan said. “Not in an arrogant way at all, but we were really confident coming to the game.
“I feel like the team’s not close to being done playing basketball yet, and we kind of had that energy all the way through practice leading up to this game.”
The Royals took complete control from the opening tip-off, as Koji Hefner opened the scoring with a hook shot before Lincoln Gengo came up with a steal and finished a layup on the other end for a quick 4-0 lead.
San Marcos continued to roll in the opening quarter, scoring nine straight points to begin the game before pulling away for a 16-2 advantage to prompt a Calabasas timeout with 3:43 on the clock.
The timeout didn’t slow the Royals down in the slightest, as they continued to have their way on both ends of the court. The dominant first quarter was emphasized by a block from Hefner, followed by a transition bucket where Brody Green found Hefner to go up 26-2 heading into the second.
“It was an incredible start, but a testament, I think, to our grit and our fortitude throughout the year,” Jordan said. “We’ve had a lot of bumps and bruises and we played a lot of good teams and battled a lot of good teams and had games come down right to the wire.
“We were ready to play tonight. It was obvious from the jump, and it was led by our seniors, Brody and Koji were both fantastic.”
Calabasas found more success out of the break with back-to-back scores to open the quarter. After some back-and-forth play, the Coyotes trimmed the deficit down to 32-15 with 3:11 left in the half and San Marcos opted for a timeout.
The two sides then exchanged buckets down the stretch, with Calabasas’ Tristan Cardoso burying a three-pointer at the buzzer to bring the Royals’ lead to 36-21 at halftime.
The increased intensity transferred over to the second half as the two sides continued to swing back and forth and the Coyotes cut the deficit down to 12 points at the 4:17 mark for the first time since the opening quarter.
The San Marcos lead didn’t dip lower than 12 for the rest of the quarter, thanks in part to the strong finishing of Green, who was aggressive in getting downhill all game long.
Green did a little bit of everything for the Royals, ending the night with 21 points, 14 assists and six rebounds.
“That’s the best game I’ve ever seen [Green] play,” Jordan said. “When he puts it all together, he has the ability to be our best player. You can’t stop him from getting into the paint. You cannot stop it. If he makes layups around the rim and he sprays out to shooters, we’re such a hard team to beat because we have three guys who can really go, Brody Koji and Aiden (Conlan).
“The ball rewarded him tonight and what I mean by that is he made the right play… He made the right play time and again, and the ball went in because of it. His passing was on time. His finishes were on time.”
Calabasas continued to battle throughout the fourth quarter, but San Marcos continued to answer on the other end and maintained its double-digit lead for the rest of the game.
“We built out a lead enough to where we kept it. I’m really proud. [Calbasas] never crested the hill. They never got it to under 10 after that amazing start,” Jordan said.
“I think the fact that they could never kind of crest the hill was really good for us to not have to exert so much mental energy of ‘We gotta close this thing out.’”
The Royals once again leaned on the trio of Green, Hefner and Conlan down the stretch to pull out the win. Conlan dropped 15 points for San Marcos, while Hefner collected 18 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks.
“I think it’s been a testament to [Hefner] deciding he’s going to be a postplayer at this level, because there’s no one out there who can guard him. He’s too big, he’s too physical. He’s too coordinated,” Jordan said of his senior.
“His interior presence on both ends offensively and defensively sets the tone for us. He’s an incredible player. I think he’s the best player in the area, and I have since the year started.”
San Marcos will look to extend its season at least one more game with another home victory on Friday.
“This game, I feel like it was a long time coming,” Jordan said. “We’ve been a dominant team at times, and I think that throughout the season and in league, I think everyone kind of bogs down.
“I think we were ready to get to the playoffs…You felt the energy tonight. We were so fresh and ready to play and excited.”