SACRAMENTO, CA - The Drake basketball team didn't return from the state's capital with a championship this weekend, but the trip was hardly for naught.
The Pirates were hoping to come back from Sleep Train Arena with the program's first CIF-State title since 1982. However, Chaminade-West Hill was convincingly superior in a 71-51 victory. Too big, too fast, too efficient.
But ask Drake coach Doug Donnellan or any of the players or any of the hundreds of green-clad students who made the way Friday from Marin County if the ride was worth it, and they'll tell you - emphatically - yes.
"The last few weeks have been great," Donnellan said in a post-game press conference. "We had quite a run and a great season. We snuck into NorCals and took advantage of things and came together. The last four games we played our best basketball and it was an experience we'll all remember for a lifetime."
Added Drake's leading scorer on the day, Jesse Hunt (16 points): "We made a statement. We beat Sacred Heart and Riordan and all these teams we weren't supposed to beat."
Chaminade proved to be an entirely different animal then for instance Riordan, which had no inside presence. The Eagles have 6-foot-10 sophomore Trevor Stanback, who resembled King Kong in the paint, swatting down Pirate shots as if they were primitive 1950s aircrafts.
Stanback blocked four shots and changed the natural arc of probably four times that many.
"We probably foolishly attacked him in the early going, trying to shoot from a few feet away until we adjusted," Donnellan said. "He's just too long. We adjusted our game as we went along."
Then there was No. 4 in blue and orange, guard Michael Oguine. Oguine is listed as 6-foot-2, but looks shorter. He sank three three-pointers in the game's first 6 1/2 minutes and raced up and down the home court like a greyhound, kissing lay-ups and short bank shots off the glass.
Oguine had 20 points and nine rebounds in the first half alone en route to a 26-point, 13-rebound night.
"No. 4 is good," Donnellan said. "He plays big and is athletic and has great quickness and an ability to finish."
Keep in mind that Chaminade (27-0) was playing without maybe its best player in 6-8 forward Jack Johnson, who was recently diagnosed with mononucleosis. It didn't seem to matter.
The Eagles sprinted out to a 19-12 lead after one quarter and built that to 16 points (33-17) with just under two minutes left in the first half. Drake went on a 7-0 run to make a dent, but Chaminade's Jordan Ogundiran scored on a buzzer beater to boost the Eagles' lead to 35-25 at the half.
Chaminade then opened the second half on a 6-0 run to balloon its lead to 41-25 and the Pirates never seriously challenged thereafter, try as they might.
Drake shot a very sub-par 24 percent from the field (12 of 49), no doubt hurt by the tough depth perception of the big arena and the ball-swatting acumen of Stanback.
"There's a history of teams not shooting well in state title games," Donnellan said. "It's an environment you have to get used to, but it was the same for both teams. We just didn't finish shots we normally do and the ball was spinning out and everything. Some of it I'm sure was early game jitters, as well as shot selection."
Chaminade actually had more turnovers (20) than Drake (17), but the Eagles were able to convert the Pirates miscues into points while too many Pirate shots missed the mark.
Explaining his team's success, Chaminade coach Todd Wolfson said: "I think it's the league we play in. It's probably the best in the nation. That's evident by the battles we have every night, with our signature win coming against Loyola at their place when they were ranked third or fourth in the nation."
Besides Oguine, Chaminade got 15 points from Justin Eisen and 12 points and eight rebounds from Stanback, who already is being courted by Division I universities.
"The coaches told me I had to step up and make up for the rebounding and scoring we were losing (because of Johnson's absence)," Stanback said. "We had to get this one for Jack."
Said Wolfson of Stanback: "He's unbelievable. You just have to understand his impact on the game because he doesn't get credit for 90 percent of what he does. A lot of those shots (by Drake) were shot higher than they normally would have been. He was our MVP today."
Besides Hunt's 16 points, Malik Huff had 10 for the Pirates, Cade Younge chipped in eight and Jasper Verduin and Brandon Vergara had seven apiece. Hunt also had 13 rebounds.
But for Drake it was just maybe the fans that shined the brightest on Friday, packing its section and making noise like no other school on Day 1, NorCal or SoCal.
The revelry really started back in San Anselmo, where a parade preceded the Pirates' voyage to Sleep Train.
"It was a great crowd," Hunt said. "I didn't know we'd have that many people out there and we're so grateful. People rallied around us like you wouldn't believe - teachers, other kids on campus and the entire community. Win or lose, they love us. There's no better place than Drake High."
