Santa Teresa marches past Washington-S.F.

Santa Teresa marches past Washington-S.F.
By Alex Pavlovic
apavlovic@mercurynews.com
Posted: 03/08/2011 10:38:56 PM PST
Updated: 03/08/2011 10:57:58 PM PST
As it turns out, Santa Teresa's impressive run through the Central Coast Section playoffs was just a taste of things to come.

Playing in their first ever CIF regionals game, the Saints marched right past Washington (San Francisco) and into the Division I second round Tuesday night at Santa Teresa. Trevor Priest did the heavy lifting on both ends, leading Santa Teresa to a 70-60 victory that wasn't nearly as close as the final score.

Priest scored 20 points and for much of the night completely shut down Brenden Glapion, who came in averaging over 23 points per game. Glapion, an AAU teammate of Priest and Saints' guard Denzel Copeland, was held to 17 points, five of which came in the final minute after Santa Teresa coach Mitch Priest pulled his starters.

A picture of intensity during games, Mitch finally cracked a smile afterward when asked about his son.

"You know I'm his worst critic "... but he played a good game tonight," Mitch said of Trevor. "A lot of his athleticism is starting to show."

Trevor Priest showed off that athleticism with two stunning sequences in the second half. In the first minute of the fourth quarter, he made an acrobatic layup on one end and sprinted back on defense for a chase-down block after the Eagles (25-10) tried to get their transition game going.

With the Saints' offense stalling late, Priest jumped a passing lane for a steal and completed a tough old-fashioned three-point play on the other end.
Not that Santa Teresa (23-7) needed any more points by then.
The Saints ran off a 21-4 run to close the first quarter and led by 20 at the half.
"Being here for our last home game, we wanted to give our fans a show and get off to a great start," Copeland said.

Copeland finished with eight points, and like the rest of the Saints, he consistently found Spencer Koopman open in the corner. The Saints' sharpshooter hit four 3-pointers and finished with 16 points. Santa Teresa hit eight 3's and got big all-around contributions from Daniel Gunter and Chris Shaw, who scored seven points apiece.

The sixth-seeded Saints travel to Sacramento on Thursday for a 7 p.m. matchup with No. 3 seed Sheldon (23-7).

"We hear they're real tough but we'll take this as far as we can," Daniel Karnes said. "We're setting school history every time we take the court."

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http://www.coach41.com/
CIF NorCal State Division I Boys Basketball Playoff: Washington (SF) vs. Santa Teresa (San Jose)
I was working in Santa Clara today and realized that the Washington High Eagles boys basketball team would be playing in San Jose tonight against Santa Teresa at 7 PM in a CIF State Playoff game. Since I was in the area (sort of, it was estimated to be some 19 miles + 30 minutes away), I decided to head over to the game. Some thoughts......

The drive to Santa Teresa High School took about 40 minutes as I ran into rush hour traffic. As I pulled into the school's parking lot, I was surprised to see a lot of cars already there. As I walked to the gym, I saw a short line out the door. It was then I knew I would be walking into hostile territory.

The environment was crazy. Both sides of the gym were packed with fans (the majority of them Santa Teresa). There was a student cheering section as well as cheerleaders. The entire gym was loud, especially since Santa Teresa played well and eventually beat Washington 70-60. I don't know if Santa Teresa is like this every game they play, but it was definitely a boost to their team and hostile to the visiting Washington team.

The Santa Teresa team deserves some credit too. I haven't watched a ton of varsity basketball games this year but Santa Teresa was one of the better teams I have seen. Santa Teresa shot the lights out from three point land, had great fundamentals, played hard defense and crashed the boards. In my opinion, Santa Teresa was probably the best team Washington had seen in recent weeks. I don't think Washington had seen such a balanced team in a while and that proved frustrating. Washington's defense couldn't lay back as Santa Teresa would hit the three's. If Washington played tight, Santa Teresa was able to blow by the defenders.

The Washington team wasn't bad though. While I am not a graduate of Washington, I had officiated one of their games during this past season and knew the coach personally. After winning the San Francisco AAA championship against Mission last week (first championship since 1982), I was curious how Washington would do in the bright lights of the CIF State Playoffs.

Some of the things I had noticed during the AAA championship game came to light against Santa Teresa. Washington and Mission both thrive on up tempo games as evidenced by the 75-72 final score in the championship. I thought it was interesting that Washington didn't hit a lot of outside jumpers. Most of their shots were put backs or layups.

This proved to be a key against Santa Teresa. With Santa Teresa hitting their shots, Washington was forced to play half court and had trouble generating offense. They went through a cold streak from halfway through the first quarter into the second quarter and allowed Santa Teresa to pull away to a 20 point lead. Washington never really challenged after that.

While it was a tough night for Washington, they should keep their heads high for making a great effort. Good luck to Santa Teresa as they travel to Sacramento for their next game.