SACRAMENTO - There may be a drought in the rest of California but not in Danville.
Monte Vista rained down 11 3-pointers on its way to the school’s first-ever state title and a 66-55 Division I state championship win over Centennial at Sleep Train Arena.
The Mustangs opened the game hitting their first six 3-pointers, including five from Cal Poly commit Trevor John, as the Mustangs jumped out to a 20-12 lead after one quarter.
“John hitting those threes really kind of settled everybody in,” said Mustangs coach Nick Jones, “because we had foul trouble early.”
Three Monte Vista starters each had two first half fouls but John tied the Division I state championship game record, set by Mater Dei’s Katin Reinhardt in 2012, with six 3-pointers in that first half as the Mustangs (32-1) took a 35-28 lead into the locker room.
“Part of our game-plan was we didn’t want to run and chuck up shots,” said Jones, “but if we can run and get the ball to John early, we were going to do it. One of the things we did see on the film was we thought we could get it to John early in transition and we did. When they were trapping, they were leaving him, and he got some open looks early and really calmed everybody’s nerves.”
The Mustangs started the second half by getting the ball to center Spencer Rust for two quick buckets and then the Monte Vista defense took over, holding Centennial to just six points in the quarter for a 51-34 advantage before the game’s final eight minutes.
Monte Vista struggled to score early in the fourth quarter and Centennial went on 15-5 run to cut the deficit to 56-49 with 3:28 left after a Jordan Griffin jumper.
As was the case all season, the Mustangs had an answer as junior Wilson LaShells would score on a putback and John would add a 15-foot jumper to push the lead to 11 with 2:30 remaining.
“We were confident the whole time,” said John. “We knew they were a terrific basketball team. When they cut it down to six, I just pulled the guys together in the huddle, and said ‘Hey, we’ve been working on this for 11 months,’ and we felt our work in the offseason prepared us for this.”
John didn’t hit a 3-pointer in the second half but still finished with a game-high 23 points and ended up one 3-pointer shy of the all-division record set by Warriors guard Klay Thompson in the 2008 Division III title game for Santa Margarita.
Most high school kids get bothered by the depth perception of a big NBA arena but not John.
“Wherever you go, the hoops are still 10 feet, the free throw line is still 15 feet, and the 3-point line is still the same,” said John. “You just got to be able to block out the surroundings and just play basketball and everything comes to you if you block out the distractions.”
Centennial (29-4), which was held to its lowest point total of the season, was paced by SMU commit Sedrick Barefield’s 16 points on 5-for-20 shooting. The Huskies team was just 2-for-18 on 3-pointers.
The Mustangs, meanwhile, were 11-of-16 from behind the arc and shot 46 percent overall.
Monte Vista not only won the school’s first state title but also became the first East Bay Athletic League team to win a state title and the second public school boys team from Contra Costa County to win a state title (Northgate, 1995).
“It’s a special group of kids,” said Jones. “The seniors set the tone in the offseason last year, the chemistry has been phenomenal, and the non-seniors have gotten on board and bought in.”