Montgomery High School put its girls and boys basketball teams on display in a rare Southern California regional double-header on Tuesday.
The girls team was fresh off a San Diego Section Division III championship while the boys team finished runner-up in the elite Open Division.
The top-seeded Lady Aztecs (22-11) moved on in the Division V bracket after posting an 88-27 victory over 16th-seeded Temecula Prep (16-10) while the No. 4 Aztecs’ saw their season end in an 84-69 upset loss to 13th-seeded Redondo Union despite 31 points from junior J.J. Sanchez.
The Montgomery boys team finished the season with an otherwise outstanding 28-4 record.
The Lady Aztecs advanced to Thursday’s second-round clash against eighth-seeded La Mirada (22-6).
Montgomery won last year’s Division III girls title as the No. 4 seed and duplicated that this season as the No. 1 seed.
The Lady Aztecs won out in their four games in the section playoffs.
Senior Jordan Whitehead poured in 32 points and sophomore Paula Zumstein dropped in 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Montgomery to an 80-40 win over 16th-seeded Valley Center to tip off the section playoffs. The Lady Aztecs overwhelmed eighth-seeded University City, 67-19, in the quarterfinals as Whitehead had 21 point and Zumstein had 20 points and 14 rebounds.
Montgomery doubled up fourth-seeded Vista, 83-41 in the semifinals as Whitehead and Zumstein each scored 28 points. Zumstein had 12 rebounds while junior Cary Brown had 10 boards.
The Lady Aztecs swept the section field with a 59-46 win over second-seeded Sage Creek (20-10) on Feb. 22. Zumstein led the way with 21 points and 13 rebounds while Whitehead added 16 points.
The Lady Aztecs finished 7-1 in league to share this year’s Metro-South Bay League championship with Victory Christian Academy, which fell by a score of 47-35 to top-seeded Francis Parker (21-9) in this year’s Division II championship game.
The 12th-seeded Lady Knights (22-8) ended their season in Tuesday’s Division IV regional opener following a close 65-59 loss at fifth-seeded Crenshaw (18-9).
The Montgomery boys team rolled a perfect 8-0 to win this year’s Metro-Mesa League title, and the Aztecs weren’t finished.
The Otay Mesa team earned the No. 3 seed in the Open Division playoffs, reserved for the top eight teams in the section, and promptly kept going.
The Aztecs defeated sixth-seeded Mission Hills, 49-41, in the quarterfinals and upset No. 2 seed St. Augustine, 56-39, in the semifinals.
Sanchez led a balanced attack in the win over Mission Hills (21-9) with 12 points while Xair Mendez and Devin Hamilton each dropped in 11 points. David Soto had 10 points in the victory.
Soto keyed the Aztecs with 17 points against the Saints (25-6) while Hamilton had 13 points and Sanchez had 11 points.
The two playoff wins catapulted Montgomery into the Open Division championship game against top-seeded Carlsbad, a 56-47 win for the Lancers.
A sluggish start doomed the Metro-Mesa champs in the final as Carlsbad got off to a 14-6 first quarter lead. The eight-point deficit was key as the Aztecs lost by nine points.
Sanchez poured in 20 points in the loss while Hamilton had 11 points.
“This is the second year in a row that we made the Open Division final,” MOH coach Ed Martin said. “Last year we lost to St. Augustine. This year we lost to Carlsbad. This is the first time a Metro Conference school made the Open Division final two times.
“This year we came into the game short-handed missing our second leading scorer and our sixth man.
“The kids who stepped in their place played great and it was a two-point game with under twominutes to play. I felt we just ran out of gas and Carlsbad hit some timely baskets down the stretch. I couldn’t be any prouder of this group of kids.”
The Aztecs exerted a measure of revenge by topping St. Augustine, a traditional sectoin power.
Matadors upset Raiders’ Division IV title grab
Mt. Miguel traded in its Division IV football championship for a division basketball title after rushing past the top-seeded Southwest Raiders (28-3) on Feb. 22.
The Matadors (23-8) won seven of their final eight games to bounce into the Division IV championship game.
Mt. Miguel eliminated 15th-seeded Sweetwater, 76-57, in the opening round on Feb. 14, then defeated seventh-seeded Clairemont, 89-69, in the quarterfinals on Feb. 17. The Matadors then gored third-seeded High Tech High Chula Vista, 80-72, in the semifinals on Feb. 20.
Mt. Miguel finished 8-2 in Grossmont Hills League play to finish runner-up to crosstown rival Monte Vista in the league standings.
Senior Thaddeus Boudreaux earned honors as the MaxPreps Player of the Game in both the semifinal win over High Tech High Chula Vista (23-5) and in the final against Southwest.
Boudreaux had 24 points and six rebounds in the win over HTH-CV. He poured in 26 points, including three three-pointers, and grabbed 10 rebounds in the championship game.
The Matadors took control early in the final with a 15-8 first quarter lead while expanding it to 37-20 at halftime. Both teams off-set one another with 15 points in the third quarter as Mt. Miguel carried a 17-point lead into the final quarter.
The Matadors out-scored the Raiders 18-13 in the fourth quarter to finish up with a 22-point victory.
Senior Mekhi Sydney dropped in 19 points to finish second in team scoring on the night behind Boudreaux. Eight players overall scored for the division champs: senior Sean Abram (eight points), junior Hamad Elhamad (six points), junior Braylen Cardwell (four points), senior Vincent Jones (three points) and freshmen Issa Baudler (two points) and Jasen Hughes (two points).
Sydney had four assists.
This was the fourth time Southwest had advanced to the division final under head coach Steve Selland — loss in 1999, wins in 2018 and 2019 and a loss last weekend.
“The result of this game obviously hurts in that when we advance this far and then get completely dismantled, we are left searching for answers, but can’t come up with too many,” Selland said. “We just couldn’t stop them, especially a couple of their guys who played outstanding — hitting shots from all angles.
“Offensively, we were unable to match them with our own offensive deficiencies, especially being unable to finish drives to the basket. Also, we have depended so much on the three-pointer this season, yet they took that away from us, as we got few attempts and only hit on two of them.
“Physically, we may have been subpar. It was a quick turn-around, having to play CIF Saturday night, Tuesday night and then Thursday night in Division IV. A key player Aaron Rosillo hurt his knee in the semi-final, but courageously played and did his best in the final. However, none of that is an excuse; they simply were the better team that night and beat us. We had a great season that will be remembered around these parts (South County) for a long time.”
Mt. Miguel received the lofty No. 2 seed in the Division V regional bracket. The Matadors were scheduled to host No. 15 New Designs University Park (24-3) in Tuesday’s opening round. Winners advance to Thursday’s second round.
Eagles fly past Monarchs, win Division III boys hoops championship title
Monte Vista’s San Diego Section Division III boys basketball championship date against the top-seeded Olympian Eagles on Feb. 23 turned out to be a class reunion as both Monarch head coach Mike Tully and Eagles head coach Marty Ellis were teammates at Monte Vista from 1989-93. The duo made a run to the CIF finals in 1992 but fell short against Torrey Pines.
Ellis bested his best friend in this year’s finals as Olympian — off to a school-record 20-0 start — bounced back from three losses in a four-game stretch in Metro-South Bay League play to win seven consecutive games to claim the championship trophy.
The Eagles eliminated 16th-seeded Mission Vista, 81-35, in the opening round, then topped x-seeded St. Joseph Academy, 76-59, in the quarterfinals. Olympian dealt fourth-seeded Mira Mesa a 60-33 setback in the semifinals to draw a second rematch against Monarchs in the championship round.
The Eagles previously defeated the Monarchs, 61-51, in a non-league game on Jan. 2 after opening the season with a 51-50 verdict on Nov. 20.
The third meeting again went to Olympian as freshman Tristan Anderson led the Eagles with 18 points while sophomore Jordan Walker dropped in 11 points and sophomore Sammell Humphries reached double digits with 10 points and led the winners with 14 rebounds.
For Monte Vista, Jalen Brown topped team scoring with 13 points; Dorian Fillmore collected 11 points while Yousif Al-Asady contributed six points.
The Monarchs won this year’s Grossmont Hills League banner with a 9-1 league record. They won seven games in a row to advance to the division championship game.
Monte Vista tipped off the playoffs with a 62-43 win over 15th-seeded Granite Hills (13-12), then topped sixth-seeded Westview, 53-41, in the quarterfinals. The Monarchs roared with a 74-67 semifinal victory over 15th-seeded Central Union (16-13).
“I am very proud of our team this year as, at one point in the season, they were 7-7 and not very connected as a team,” Tully said. “They were able to buy-in and mature some over the course of the next 17 games where they went 16-1 to reach the finals.
“Team goals prior to the season was to win 20 plus games, win league, get a top four seed, and win CIF. They accomplished all but one. However, in that roller-coaster ride they became better people. Myself and my assistant coach, Darryl Sykes were extremely proud. “
Despite placing runner-up in the section finals, the Monarchs earned the No. 8 seed in the Southern California Division IV regional playoffs and were scheduled to host No. 9 seed Estancia (23-9) on Tuesday.
The regional finals are March 5, followed by the state championship game on March 7. Chatsworth is the No. 1 seed in the division.
