Photo Courtesy of Alissa So

San Gabriel boys basketball defeated in CIF-clinching game

0 0
Read Time4 Minute, 28 Second

After disappointing years of broken promises and overreacted teams, many believed that this was the first chance for the boys varsity basketball to make the CIF playoffs in 12 years.  

The addition of transfer guard Wesley Tamaki in the starting lineup proved to be a huge improvement when paired along with guards Jarett Tan, Preston Sayavong, Nick Miyamoto, and center Andy Chen. With the largest number of seniors of any other team in the league, the Matadors felt that they would make a lot of noise in the league this year.  

San Gabriel also benefited from the addition of sharpshooters Andrew Canizal and Quoc Ho; and senior forwards Josh Giron and Boris Huang, with bench contributions from sophomores Miguel Quintana and Alan Tu; senior guards Kenneth Tran, Frank Lieu, Andres Olivera, Scott Lam, Joey Renteria; and senior post Andrew Moc.

With the defending Almont League Champions, Mark Keppel High School, losing key seniors to graduation and college, Chen believed that the league was up for the taking.

“Every team is going to lose at least one game this year,” Chen said. “There’s no dominating team that is going to beat the other team twice this season.”

With 10 games on the schedule, the boys had to play all the teams in the Almont League twice, once at San Gabriel High, and once at their respective schools. The top three teams would be admitted to the CIF playoffs.

The Matadors started off the season in a drought, losing the first two games at home against Alhambra and Mark Keppel both by double digits. They also dropped their first road game against the Schurr Spartans, leaving their record at 0-3, despite only trailing one by halftime.

All these signs indicated that the Matadors would have similar seasons as previous teams. The intensity left the practices, the taste right out of their favorite foods, and the laugh right out of the jokes.

However, senior guard Scott Lam was not content about the matter and addressed the problems to the rest of the squad.

“This year is really our time to shine. We can win league, but we just got to step it up,” Lam said. “We gotta stop talking about each other behind our backs, support the squad, and play the game we love playing.”

Lam seemed to have sparked a light within the Matador team as they won their next two games, escaping Bell Gardens with a narrow victory and defeating Montebello by eight at home, securing fourth place in the standings midway through the season.

Coach Jason Meader was extremely eccentric after the win that night.

“I got two words for you guys,” Meador said as he used sophomore guard Andrew Canizal’s celebratory trademark. “Let’s go!”

Nevertheless, Lam’s spark did not run forever, as the Matadors fell to the second seeded Alhambra Moors in a close game losing by nine, and to the first seeded Mark Keppel Aztecs by 15.

The two losses dropped the Matadors to fifth place with a record of 2-5, and the CIF playoffs became just a dream.  

After these two losses, San Gabriel could not afford to lose another game if they wanted to be the first team in 12 long years to make the CIF playoffs. Nonetheless, the Matadors shocked the Schurr Spartans at home winning by nine, and manhandled the Bell Garden Lancers during senior night, which resulted in San Gabriel, Montebello, and Schurr tying for third place in the standings going into the last game of the season.

The heat was on. One more win and CIF was just around the corner. However, one team stood in the way: the Montebello Oilers.

If San Gabriel could spoil the Oilers’ senior night with a win, and the second seeded Alhambra Moors took care of business against the Spartans, then the way to CIF was just down the hall.

Thus, in the last game of the year, both the Matadors and Oilers, with their backs against the wall, competed against one another to become the team that would advance to CIF.

However, despite losing the first game, Montebello seemed to have rebounded from the last game, as they narrowly defeated San Gabriel by four, ending their best run in a long time.  

As for the seniors, it was finally time to hang up the laces. The locker room filled with disappointed tears and shocked faces as Coach Meador spoke to his team for the last time.

“We should be proud of ourselves,” Meador said. “When we lost our first three games, I didn’t think that we would make it as far as competing for a spot in the CIF. It was great effort to turn our season around into a good run.”

Assistant Coach Alex Canizal also offered words of encouragement.

“Don’t hang your head down,” Canizal said. “All we ask for is intensity and for you to play hard. And you guys went out and competed today.”

As the 2016 San Gabriel Matadors ended their final chapters, there is one thing that is for sure. The 2017 San Gabriel Matadors is not the team to be messed with and is favored to exceed this remarkable run. Although the team could not make it onto the bracket this year, they have just opened the door wide enough for the future.

 

Average Rating

5 Star
0%
4 Star
0%
3 Star
0%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *