(Prep2Prep takes a look at the anticipated best boys and girls basketball teams for the 2014-2015 season, today focusing on the Moreau Catholic boys):
The Moreau Catholic basketball season is already off to a good start as the Mariners defeated formidable Drake 65-64 in the Prep2Prep NorCal Tip-Off Classic on November 29.
Moreau next will strut its stuff in the Duel in the Desert on Friday in Phoenix, Ariz.
The win against Drake at Newark Memorial High was a good early sign for Mariners fans that last season's CIF-State Division IV runners-up are for real and hopeful to improve on last season's performance.
The Mariners rallied from a 10-point deficit to defeat another CIF-State title-game qualifier (Division III) team in Drake -- and without returning Mariner standout Damari Milstead, who was held out of the game for what coach Frank Knight called a "violation of team rules." Milstead will be sitting out a few weeks, Knight said.
Juniors Brandon Lawrence, Terell Brown, Oscar Frayer and a handful of others were enough for Moreau against Drake. Lawrence and Brown had 20 points each and Cal commit Frayer and 16 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots, including a key block against Eastern Washington commit Jesse Hunt in the game's final seconds, followed by the anxious moment of watching a subsequent shot by Hunt at the buzzer rim out.
"He (Hunt) is a great player and I just wanted to try to contain him any way I could," Frayer said. "I was nervous that shot was going to go in. It was a great team victory."
It won't be the last. Moreau proved its mettle last season by finishing 27-7 overall and 11-3 in the Mission Valley Athletic League, second only to unbeaten Newark Memorial. And it did that with what was essentially a frosh-soph team, consisting of just one upperclassmen -- a junior who averaged 2.6 points per game.
The sweet-shooting Lawrence, who scored what stood up as the winning points against Drake with a 3-pointer with 18.5 seconds left, nicely complements the high-flying Frayer and Milstead with his outside shooting.
Said Lawrence after the Drake contest: "It was one of my better games. I just want to help the team any way I can."
Lawrence scored 20-plus points twice last season against Salesian, first in the NCS D-IV title game won by Moreau 73-68 and then in the CIF-State Nor Cal Regional championship game won by the Mariners 61-52. Overall Lawrence averaged 11.8 points per game last season to aid the junior Frayer (14.1 points, 10.1 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 3.7 blocks per game), Milstead (15.5 points, 2.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 3.3 steals) and Armond Simmons (8.9 points, 4.7 assists).
Knight knows that tests like the Drake game and this week's Duel in the Desert will only enhance the Mariners' run at another CIF-State NorCal regional title and possible return to the state title game.
"We had no seniors on a team last season that made the state title game," Knight said. "We've been through this before."
