20 Feb Pittsburg High Basketball Falls Short in First Round of NCS Tournament

These Pittsburg High seniors laced them up for the final time as Pirates on Wednesday.

Story and photos by Joe Porrello

The Pittsburg High Pirates boys varsity basketball team saw its season come to an end Wednesday night, losing 77-60 to St. Mary’s College High in the first round of the North Coast Section Division II playoffs at St. Mary’s home court in Albany.

The Panthers, a No. 3 seed ranked No. 102 out of 1,495 teams in California, entered as favorites against the No. 14 seed Pirates, who were ranked No. 298 in the state.

The matchup marked the teams’ second meeting of the season after St. Mary’s defeated Pittsburg 66-57 on Jan. 12. The programs had not played each other in more than two decades before this year.

With about 250 fans in attendance, both teams had loud vocal support coming from the stands.

“The Pittsburg crowd always shows out with a lot of energy,” said 6-foot-6 senior forward Terrnace Wiley.

Panthers assistant coach Seth Jones said he appreciated the fan engagement. 

“We haven’t had this in a while — we really push for the students to be here, and it was a wonderful feeling; the atmosphere was electric,” he said.

In their last eight games, St. Mary’s only two losses — along with their only home loss of the season — came against top-ranked Salesian High, most recently on Feb. 14 in the Tri-County-Rock League championship. 

The Pirates entered having dropped three of their last four matchups but came out like a team on a winning streak.

 

Pittsburg High started the game on a 6-0 run and used high energy, fast paced play to build a lead of 17-14 going into the second quarter — a lead that could have been larger if not for numerous turnovers.

St. Mary’s got back into it from beyond the arc and with on-ball defense. While his team only surrendered 11 points in the quarter, 6-foot-7 junior forward Donovan Mikel made a trio of three pointers in the second frame. On the final play of the half with the game tied, he was fouled shooting a three-pointer and converted a four-point play to give his team a 32-28 lead at the break.

“I feel like we kind of beat ourselves with ticky tack mistakes that changed the game,” said Pirates 6-foot-3 senior guard Ja’Saan Garcia.

Garcia and junior teammate 6-foot-7 forward Bryden Hunt both finished with a team-high 13 points.

 

Relentlessly crashing the offensive glass, the Panthers earned themselves countless second and third chances on offense. Gaining the game’s first double-digit lead about halfway through the third quarter, they went into the final frame ahead by 11 and only grew the margin thereafter.

“Their size started to wear us down,” said Pirates first-year head coach Jared Martin. “The effort was there, but you can’t out-athlete everybody.”

 

Jones gave his forwards the credit for the win.

“Our bigs came to play today and really set the tone for us,” he said.

Pittsburg High 6-foot-6 forward Terrance Wiley was forced to the bench early in the fourth quarter after fouling out.

“Wiley was giving us a lot of production, so him fouling out really hurt us,” said Martin.

 

Finishing with a season-high 77 points, St. Mary’s struggled at the free-throw line, going 9-24. Pittsburg High made five more foul shots despite taking five fewer attempts. The Panthers made up for it from the perimeter, where they sank eight long-distance shots compared with just two for the Pirates.

While Pittsburg High scored one point above their team average, St. Mary’s eclipsed their points per game by over 20 points. Both teams ended with three double-digit scorers, and the Panthers got all but five points from just four players.

 

Playing 21 out of 26 games at home, Wednesday’s matchup marked only Pittsburg’s second true road game of the season, with the other coming in their opening game Dec. 3. In contrast, St. Mary’s played just six games at home out of 28.

Junior 6-foot-7 St. Mary’s teammates Miles Woods and Mikel, smiling ear-to-ear, said they were relishing their first postseason victory. Woods finished with nine points, including a thunderous fourth-quarter dunk, and Mikel collected a game-high 25 points.

Their fellow 6-foot-7 teammate, senior Christopher Baltrip, tallied 20 points.

 

St. Mary’s has just one overall losing season in their last nine; Pittsburg High finished with a fourth straight winning campaign.

“I love all my teammates whether we win or lose, or if we argue — we fight together at the end of the day,” said Wiley, playing in his final game as a Pirate.

Garcia also closed his high school career.

“We went from learning about each other to being family,” he said. “I have a lot of pride every time I put on that jersey because I’ve been living out there basically my whole life… I’m going to miss playing the game for this school,” Garcia said.

 

It was the ninth double-digit loss of the season for a Pirates team that finished their season 14-12 overall and 7-3 (2nd) in the Bay Valley Conference.

St. Mary’s improved to 18-10 overall and 9-2 (2nd) in TCRL play and will host No. 11 seed El Cerrito High in the quarterfinals Saturday.

After avenging their loss in the same playoff round last season, Jones said he wants even more from his team.

“Hopefully, we can take this momentum and turn it into a state championship run,” he said.