SAN FRANCISCO — One of the greatest rides by one of the best boys basketball teams ever to grace Lake County ended with a 79-42 loss Thursday night as the Clear Lake Cardinals fell to the Lincoln Mustangs in the quarterfinals of the NorCal Division 4 playoffs at Lincoln High School in San Francisco’s Sunset District.
It’s the second straight year Lincoln, a public school with more than 2,000 students, has ended Clear Lake’s season A year ago the Mustangs won 76-58 in Lakeport during the Division 5 quarterfinals. Both teams were moved up into Division 4 this season.
While the Mustangs (28-4) don’t have much size in their starting lineup, with 6-foot-5 senior James Walsh (14 points) being the notable exception, they are incredibly quick and agile with incredible court sense. Lincoln starts three brothers, the best of which is sophomore Jordan Aquino (20 points), while freshmen siblings Justin (12 points) and Jeremyah (four points) also can dazzle with the basketball.
“They imposed their will on us,” Scott De Leon said of the Mustangs after coaching his final game for the Cardinals. “Unbelievable quickness and they’re very well coached. They can shoot the ball and what they lack in size they make up for with their quickness. The defensive pressure they put on us was incredible. They were relentless.”
De Leon said it’s impossible to prepare for the kind of quickness the Mustangs possess for the simple reason there’s no way to simulate it in practice. And it’s even tougher when you’re coming off a 628-mile round trip to Kingsburg in Fresno County where the 10th-seeded Cardinals upset the seventh-seeded Vikings 66-53 on Tuesday.
The Cardinals didn’t arrive back home until midday Wednesday, less than 24 hours before hitting the road for San Francisco, their second trip to The City in six days (they lost 66-58 to Stuart Hall in the North Coast Section Division 5 finals last Saturday).
“It had to take something out of us,” De Leon said of such a quick turnaround before playing No. 2 seed Lincoln, which led only 17-13 after a highly competitive first quarter when the Cardinals had the lead on three occasions, the final time 11-9 after a 6-0 run on consecutive baskets by Donovan Valadez, Tyler Cerini and Jaron Mertle. Darrin Lum’s 3-pointer with 1:12 left in the opening period put Lincoln ahead to stay at 12-11.
“We were able to trade baskets with them early, but their speed caught up to us in the second quarter,” De Leon said after an opening period when the Cardinals played their starters the entire way, not because De Leon wanted it that way, but out of pure necessity.
“They were fresh and had a deep bench,” De Leon said of the Mustangs, who hosted a first-round NorCal game Tuesday, beating Union Mine 67-60. “You can’t expect these guys to spend 11 hours on the road and come back and play a good game after they had a tough game and a great win on Tuesday (against Kingsburg),” he added of the Cardinals.
It added up to a perfect storm of offense for Lincoln in the second quarter — 38 points worth, to be exact. Jordan Aquino scored 10 of them, including two 3-pointers, brother Justin added eight more, and Lum found the range on two more 3-pointers.
Even worse for the Cardinals, they lost Valadez for the game when he turned an ankle with 3:08 remaining in the first half.
“Losing Donovan hurt a lot,” De Leon said. “He was able to match their speed.”
Trailing 55-25 at halftime, the Cardinals, especially the team’s core group of seniors — Mertle, Cerini, Darius Ford and Travis Howe — were looking at a tough ending to an incredibly successful season and their high school careers. And that wasn’t all.
“I had told a few people but not many,” De Leon said of his decision to step down as head coach after this season, his seventh at Clear Lake. “I told them at halftime and they were really upset. They were afraid this was going to be their last game and I told them I knew exactly how they felt because it was going to be my last game, too. There were a lot of tears and hugs because we are family.”
Why step down now?
“It’s just time,” De Leon said. “I put so much energy into this as do my other coaches, it’s a year-round job. I’m blessed to have had the support of my family, school, community and employer. It’s time to hand it over to guys who are able to sustain that energy.”
The second half played out with the Cardinals unable to get any closer than 25 points. The Mustangs worked the 35-second possession clock throughout the final two quarters but were still able to add to their lead. De Leon mix and matched starters with reserves down the stretch, finally pulling his remaining four starters — Mertle, Ford, Cerini and Howe — with four minutes left in the fourth quarter. On their way off the court, they each received hugs from De Leon and assistant coaches Mike Damiata and Scott Persons.
Cerini went out with a 15-point game, including a 6-for-7 first half from the field. Mertle finished with eight points, Howe had six and Valadez five.
Clear Lake’s accomplishments the last two season have included two undefeated league championships, two solid section runs — finalists this year and semifinalists in 2019 — back-to-back trips to the NorCal quarterfinals, and consecutive 27-win seasons.
“It was a great group of guys,” De Leon said. “It was a huge effort by all the coaches and parents who have coached these kids through their Lakeport days, going back to when they were in the third grade. I was just a small part of it, and I was the lucky one who got to be there at the end.”
