For the second time in three years, the Cañada College men’s basketball punched its ticket into the state championships.
The No. 5 Colts took care of business Saturday night in the regional finals of the NorCal playoffs with a 86-71 victory over No. 13 American River, securing a spot in the Elite 8 this week at Las Positas College in Livermore.
“It’s been a special year with these young men coming together,” Cañada coach Mike Reynoso said. “And seeing each one of these guys develop as a student-athlete for us has been tremendous. It definitely had its bumps along the road, but all in all, I knew once this team figured it out and got on the same page and bought into the things that we’re teaching as a coaching staff and the philosophies that we have, once that came around, you could really see us start rolling.”
On Saturday, Cañada (23-7) needed to keep pace early in the first half, as American River (16-11) came to Redwood City with the intention of pulling another upset after knocking off No. 4 Fresno City in the previous round.
“It actually started out a pretty crazy environment,” Reynoso said. “It was up and down, as we knew it was going to be, but they banked in two 3’s to start the game. … It was kind of like, ‘Oh, is this how the night is going to go?’ But we just stuck it out.
“We were focused and the guys really excited the game plan and what we prepared for.”
With about 11 minutes left in the first half, a 2-2-1 press turned the tables and Cañada took control, turning an early deficit into a 45-36 lead at halftime.
“After that, we didn’t really look back,” Reynoso said.
While 6-foot guard Mike Pickney sparked the offense in the first and finished with a game-high 23 points, it was 6-5 forward Antony Navarrete making his presence felt during a 10-0 run out of the locker room to take control in the second half.
“Antony was in foul trouble and he only played about 8 minutes in the first half,” Reynoso said of the freshman, who recorded a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds in 26 minutes. “He came in that second half and we got it to him. He ran the floor, finished at the rim, hit an outside 3.”
American River refused to go away, but the steadiness of 6-foot guard Davis Kimble — 10 of 14 from the line, 3 of 4 from beyond the arc — allowed the Colts to maintain a cushion. Kimble finished with 21 points.
“They fought as a team and really battled, so it was never over until about 3 minutes left when we knew it was in the bag,” Reynoso said. “We were just able to be detailed and take care of the ball, play fundamentally and disciplined down the stretch, which helped us out a lot.”
Cañada was back on the court Monday afternoon, with one more week left to play for.
“We went heavy today, which is hard after one day off,” Reynoso said. “But we’ll go lighter tomorrow and just focus on the details. At this point, we just need to run over some schematics on defense and offense. But if we don’t know them now, we’re in trouble. So we just need to go out, put our plan in motion, make sure our bodies feel good, we’re energetic and ready to go.”
Next is Thursday’s 1 p.m. matchup against Fullerton (24-6), the No. 1 seed from the South.
“We’re definitely not done,” Reynoso said. “We feel really confident going into this Fullerton game. Whether you play that No. 1 seed the first time or in the championship, you’re going to have beat a good team each step of the way at this point.”
The semifinals will be held Saturday, with the championship scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m.