The562’s coverage of Cabrillo Athletics is sponsored by the Cohn Family.
The Cabrillo basketball team lives for the big moment, and they showed it once again during the fourth quarter of their CIF-SS Division 2A second rounder. Despite trailing for most of the game against visiting Valencia, the Jags’ came alive down the stretch in the second half en route to a 52-46 win.
It’s already the fourth playoff win for the program since their first ever playoff win last season, and the Jags’ will look to keep their run going with another home game in the quarterfinals on Tuesday against Irvine.
“They just battle. We didn’t play our best the whole game, but we just gotta be the team that gets another 32,” said Jags’ coach Chris Spencer. “I thought we started flat and made a lot of mistakes that we haven’t made since early in the year, but I knew we had some type of run in us. We just kept them at bay long enough.”
The Jags found two clutch buckets with under two minutes to play from senior captain Lincoln Dean, who’s had a real knack for Cabrillo’s big moments since transferring from Wilson two years ago. Dean knocked down a three-pointer to put his team up by four before coming up with a steal on defense and a coast-to-coast bucket to put the game out of reach.
“You just can’t fold under pressure,” Dean said of the big moments. “I feel like when it comes down to the biggest shots you just gotta calm down and control the game, and I feel like that’s what we did.”
Dean had 12 points and was one of five scores for Cabrillo as the Jags focused on spreading the ball around to each player within their role. Aiden Jones had nine points and Irvin Choice had seven, meanwhile Kenzie Obue and Mason Johnson matched Dean with 12.
“I just had to trust the work I put in and believe in myself,” said the 6-foot-5 Obue, who was a huge contributor on the offensive glass. “I’ve just been accepting my role and believing in my teammates. If everyone does their part then we win, so I just have to own up to whatever role I have and play well.”
“It’s just the selflessness,” added Spencer of the team-effort. “We have a lot of guys who can be in larger roles elsewhere but we just tell them to buy in. Like I tell [Obue], I say ‘hey you may do a lot of dirty work and rebounds this year and you’ll be feature guy when it’s your time, but right now lets focus on your role for this team and everything will work itself out.’”
Cabrillo struggled early on against an aggressive 1-2-2 zone coverage from Valencia, one that forced a handful of erred passes while under plenty of pressure. Spencer said he told his guys to focus on being themselves after trailing by six at the half, and the Jags would eventually move the ball around and find the soft spots within the zone in the second half.
“They’re really long and lengthy and they’re waiting on you to make a turnover and a lot of times we were being too loose with the ball and not valuing possessions when it mattered. When we got the ball we found open looks but we just had to keep going long enough to get the ones we needed.”
The Jags similarly tightened up on defense in the second half after giving up a handful of one-on-one buckets to guys like Noah Trevino who had a game-high 21 points. Trevino had 13 of those in the first half and was held to just two points in the fourth quarter.
“Early we weren’t competing,” Spencer said. “Those guys were making the bump and getting all the way to the basket. We were giving up straightline drives and I just challenged them at halftime to get back to us. We have to stop guys one on one and I thought we answered on just enough runs to get the stop that we needed.”
The Jags will look to keep things rolling into the quarterfinals with yet another home game against Irvine on Tuesday.
“They’re ecstatic. Another 32 is what we’re focusing on,” Spencer said. “These home games are huge, and man, we’re fighting. We think we have a chance and we believe it if nobody else believes it. We just want to keep things going and we’re not ready for it to end.”
