Pirates Can't Corral Mustangs in MCAL Title Game

The Drake High Pirates had a overtime loss from two weeks ago fresh in their minds Saturday night when they had a rematch with San Marin in the Marin County Athletic League boys basketball championship game. This would be all about revenge.

But it only took a few minutes to realize that this title bout was going to be quite different from the 73-70 San Marin win in their regular-season matchup. Rather than a track meet, this would be a plodding defensive struggle with the squeaking of sweaty human skin sliding against the hardwood floor almost as loud as the sellout crowd of 1,250 at the Redwood High gym.

Drake trailed 12-6 in the first quarter and 21-13 at halftime, but still had a solid chance against the favored Mustangs (24-4) early in the third quarter. Drake cut it down to four points, then watched San Marin run away with it and claim a 65-50 victory.

 “We dug ourselves a hole by maybe going for too much too quick,” said Drake coach Doug Donnellan. “In the third, we hit our first couple (of buckets) but then our shot selection wasn’t very good and San Marin just took advantage.”

Donnellan said guard Mark Parnow sparked the Pirates off the bench and had some key buckets to keep Drake in the game during the third quarter. But that’s also when San Marin started taking better care of the ball, hitting hits and rebounding well, leading to the decisive spurt.

San Marin won its first MCAL title in 18 years as John Seavey scored 16 of his game-high 25 points in the second half. Stuart Wesonga, the league’s leading scorer at 21 points per game, had 18 points with 14 rebounds.

Following a timeout early in the third quarter, San Marin made crisper passes and created some turnovers that stretched the lead back to 40-24 by the start of the fourth quarter.

The Mustangs’ Chris Glennon was held to nine points but had seven during the decisive stretch in the third quarter. Seavey had eight points in the third and eight in the fourth, including two 3-pointers in the final minutes to stretch the margin.

Joey Euphrat led Drake with 16 points and Austin Buck added 10.

Donnellan said the Pirates didn’t really expect to contain Wesonga — “Stuart is Stuart,” he said with a shrug — but they hoped the other Mustangs would struggle under the defensive pressure.

“(Center Alec) Kenilvort made Wesonga work for everything he got,” Donnellan said, “but we had to make sure nobody else gets going. Tonight it was Seavey. He was all-world the last two games we played against them. You have to give them credit.”

The Pirates’ season is still alive. The seedings for the North Coast Section tournament will be announced Sunday morning and Donnellan said he expects his team to be a high enough seed to earn a home game in the first round.