Boys basketball: Book closes on Marin Catholic’s banner season

Not all fairy tales have a happy ending. Take Marin Catholic’s storybook season, for example.

The final chapter played out Tuesday night in Kentfield with the No. 8 Wildcats eliminated by multi-talented No. 9 King’s Academy (Sunnyvale) 85-73 in the opening round of the NorCal Division-I boys basketball championships.

But as MC’s first-year coach Kevin Vasquez was quick to point out, there was nothing about the loss the Wildcats should sulk about – except maybe that a victory would have earned them another home game as top-seed Buchanan was upset 60-54 by No. 16 Jesuit.

“What an incredible season,” Vasquez said. “I told the team, don’t let one game take anything away from what we did. It was truly a magical season.”

When the season started Marin Catholic (24-5) was not even predicted to win the MCAL title.

However, after nabbing that banner, the Wildcats were invited to the North Coast Section open division playoffs where they won one of two games and made it into the NorCal D-I playoffs.

“We were confident coming into this game,” MC senior captain Joe Hammond said. “But they were a very, very skilled team. They were definitely the most skilled team we played all season.”

King’s Academy (24-4), the defending D-III NorCal champs who lost by a point in the state title game last season, certainly flaunted skill to spare.

Five Knights reached double-figures in scoring led by Adrian Barnett – who scored 20 points, and grabbed nine rebounds, both game-high numbers.

Perhaps the ending was a letdown for the Wildcats but they never laid down against the Knights.

Marin Catholic led 40-37 at halftime behind the hot three-point shooting of Oliver Myers, who scored 11 of his team-high 16 points in the first half.

“I think we took them by surprise a little bit,” Hammond said. “Maybe they figured they were playing some soft Marin team and they could just take it easy. At this level, you have got to work, you have got to play hard and be dogs out there. That’s what they did in the second half so credit to their team for stepping up.”

The Wildcats held their ground and led 50-47 on Bentley Morrow’s spinning drive and layup midway through the third quarter.

But Barnett scored a two-handed stuff on a fastbreak late in the quarter to put the Knights up 51-50, and the tide started to turn.

The Wildcats evened the score one last time at 58-58 early in the fourth quarter on Myers’ fourth three-pointer.

But the Knights relentlessly swept the boards each time the Wildcats missed a shot and turned many of the rebounds into fastbreak layups.

King’s Academy pulled away in the final minutes.

“We lost to a very good team without a doubt,” Vasquez said. “But we were ahead at halftime and then we couldn’t get a stop or make a shot.”

Other than Myers, only senior Micah Pierce reached double figures in scoring (10 points). Pierce added a team-high six rebounds and blocked a shot. Chase Williams had nine points, Jack Herman scored eight and Morrow added seven.

“There were a lot of sad kids in that locker room,” Vasquez said. “But when they are able to look back on the season without emotion, they are going to realize what they accomplished. The experience we got this season is going to pay dividends for years to come.”