The562’s coverage of Cabrillo Athletics is sponsored by the Cohn Family.
There might not have been a better place to be at on Friday night than Cabrillo High School.
Cabrillo had the entire westside on their back in their second round matchup hosting La Salle as the Jaguars kept on giving them something to cheer about. After winning their first playoff game in school history two days prior, the Jags continued their historic run with a 71-60 win over La Salle in the second round of the CIF-SS Division 4A playoffs.
“The biggest thing is that our community is behind us,” said Jags coach Chris Spencer. “Not just the school but the community. We have alumni from 02’, 04’, 05’ coming in with jerseys and great energy, you can’t beat that. That’s something that has been here for years and the kids deserve it…We want this historic run but we are doing it for ourselves and the community as a by-product. So we know if we continue to play for ourselves every game we just ask for another 32 minutes. We’re playing for 32 more, and they earned another 32 tonight.”
With the community behind their back and crowd full of cheers, the Jags tipped off in an instantly high paced matchup. Both teams traded blows in an even-kill first half, as they shared 10 total lead changes with the highest lead being just six points. The Jaguars went into the break trailing 32-31.
“We just didn’t make shots in the first half but we don’t worry about that because we hang our hats on playing defense so we weren’t worried about the back and forth,” said Spencer. “We knew we just wanted to be gritty and be in the game. We wanted to play ourselves into a game.”
The Jaguars opened up the third quarter with a huge 10-2 run to recapture their lead behind junior Lincoln Dean. Dean had seven of his game-high 21 points in the third quarter as Cabrillo was able to take a 41-34 lead in the opening minutes of the second half.
However sophomore Emmitt Claiborne and the La Salle offense wouldn’t be put away easily as Claiborne responded with eight straight points for the Lancers as they were able to pull within two points. Claiborne ended the night with a game-high 33 points however the Jags held a six point lead heading into the final quarter.
“I challenged those guys. We came into the fourth quarter and I said ‘are you guys ready for your season to end?’” said Spencer.
But when the Jags needed it most with their season on the line their stars showed up. After sitting the whole third quarter in foul trouble, Jeremy Siquig took over the game in the fourth quarter pouring on 10 points in the final period. He helped the Jags capture a 10-point lead to immediately open up the fourth quarter, one they’d hang onto for the rest of the game.
“This home court is my favorite place on earth. This is the best place to play in the season and it’s the best time for me to perform. It’s the best place for me to show out here like tonight,” said Siquig.
Siquig finished with 17 points, and received high praise from fellow teammates.
“We counted on me but one guy definitely we counted on was (Siquig),” credited Dean. “Shout out to him, he was great. He was aggressive on defense and had great takes on offense. It was just me and him going at it all game.”
The Jags also had major contributions from Kaleb Curry down the stretch. Curry had 10 of his 12 points in the second half to contribute to the Jags outburst.
“When I’m shooting my eyes are just locked on the rim,” said Curry. “When I shoot the ball 9 times out of 10 it’s going in and that’s just what I believe. So I was just getting to my spot and shooting.”
Dean and the Jags were able to dribble the ball out behind the cheers booming off the walls inside the Cabrillo gym. Dean said that the team draws motivation for the crowd as they look to continue their historic season.
“It’s all love. The whole westside was here,” said Dean. “Westside on top right now. All the Alumni here too, shout out to them. We’re taking over CIF.”
Cabrillo (17-13) will look to their quarterfinal matchup in the CIF-SS D4A against Temecula Valley (16-13) on Tuesday at 7:00 PM
