Boys basketball: San Marin in pursuit of history with NorCal win

The reality started to sink in after Thursday’s win in the San Marin High boys basketball locker room.

“I didn’t know we were the only team to get this far in nine years,” said Mustangs senior co-captain Anthony Elwell. “I’m excited. We’re going to hopefully be the first to win a state championship.”

No. 3 seed San Marin made program history as the Mustangs rolled to a 69-30 victory over No. 6 Woodland Christian in the NorCal Regional Division V quarterfinals on Thursday night.

The Mustangs (19-13) continue their historic quest as they advance to Saturday’s NorCal Division V Regional semifinals against No. 2 Rancho Cotate in Santa Rosa. The Cougars (25-8) placed second in the North Coast Section D-IV playoffs. San Marin, which beat Rancho Coatate 61-44, during the Mustang Invitational in December, is now two wins from the program’s first ever appearance in the CIF State Championship game in Sacramento.

“These guys are focused on what they want and that is to get to the Golden 1 (Center in Sacramento),” “The day we learned on Friday, Feb. 6, that we weren’t getting (an MCAL) play-in game, the guys get out and run, because they were extremely upset,” San Marin head coach Chris Lavdiotis said.

San Marin last appeared in the NorCal Regionals in 2017, with a first-round loss to Mission in the D-III playoffs.

The Mustangs have been on a mission ever since a loss to Archie Williams High in the regular-season finale knocked them out of the MCAL playoff field. San Marin was tied at 3-5 with San Rafael and Tamalpais, but lost the three-way tiebreaker.

“The day we learned on Friday, Feb. 6, that we weren’t getting (an MCAL) play-in game, the guys get out and run, because they were extremely upset,” Lavdiotis said. “We let them run up and down the court. And we said, ‘We aren’t going to the MCAL playoffs, but we still have the North Coast playoffs, and the next best thing we can do is to do some damage here.’ After that, they came back the next day, Saturday, to practice and they said ‘We’re ready.’”

This group of San Marin players hadn’t made it past the second round of the NCS playoffs until this season, when they finished third in the D-IV bracket to secure their NorCal bid.

“I don’t think that (history) adds any more pressure, because we’re still going to go out and play our game,” Elwell said. “It’s our time now and we’re going to play our game.”

Miller Morgan spurred the Mustangs with 11 points in the first half Thursday, but injured his ankle midway through the second quarter and didn’t return. He is expected to be available to play Saturday.

Grant Means picked up the energy in the second half with 12 of his team-high 14 points. Kellen Dunning hit a trio of 3-pointers for nine points and Jake Beisler also had nine points. Elwell had eight points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Jackson Young led a dominating San Marin defense for 10 rebounds, two blocks and two steals.

The Mustangs busted out to a 10-0 lead with a pair of baskets by Morgan and 3-pointers by Elwell and Dunning. San Marin enjoyed a 15-0 run before Morgan was injured when he fell the floor after trying to block a layup by the Cardinals’ Owen Rainwater in the second quarter. Rainwater led the Cardinals with 12 points.

Beisler, Jason Gillen and Joey Engler each struck from deep territory as the Mustangs wrapped up the first half with a 9-0 run to boost their lead to 41-10.

With Means stepping up the attack in the second half, the San Marin bench came through with some timely relief. Junior 6’2” guard Brayden Bowermaster brought a physical presence to San Marin’s defense and sank a layup with 4:44 left to play to push the Mustangs’ lead to 40 points.

San Marin closed out ts run in the final 2 minutes as junior Landry Hutchens sank a shot from behind the arc, and then sophomore Joseph Volpe scored his first points of the season with a 3-pointer.

“We have very good chemistry and we’re very talented, and I knew that would carry us far,” Elwell said. “Everybody on the court is willing to do what it takes to win.”