NorCal thriller: San Ramon Valley comes up big in clutch, beats Mitty to advance to Division I final
SRV overcame a 13-point deficit to beat No. 3 Mitty and advance to the CIF NorCal finals where it'll play No. 4 Granada.
DANVILLE — Six weeks ago, San Ramon Valley senior forward Jack Moxley thought his high school career might have been over.
A dislocated patella in his right knee had many people within the team thinking about how the Wolves were going to go on without him in the playoffs.
Fast forward to Saturday and Moxley is the hero who saved SRV’s season.
The 6-foot-3 forward made the two biggest plays of the game, including SRV’s go-ahead basket in the fourth quarter, to help lift the No. 2 seed Wolves over No. 3 Archbishop Mitty 52-49 in the CIF Division I NorCal semifinal.
SRV will play No. 4 Granada in the NorCal finals at Dublin High School on Tuesday.
Luke Isaak led SRV with 17 points, Seamus Deely had 10 and Moxley finished with eight.
Caeden Hutcherson and Tyler Jones each had 16 points for Mitty in the loss. Gavin Ripp had 11.
“It was win or go home,” Moxley said. “We’re battling for our lives out here and I’m glad we got it done.”
Mitty came out and blitzed the Wolves from the jump as the Monarchs scored 13 unanswered points in the first three minutes of the first quarter.
But after a timeout from coach Brian Botteen, the SRV defense readjusted and didn’t allow a Mitty basket until early in the second quarter.
The Wolves took a one-point advantage in the second quarter, but didn’t see a lead until the fourth. Mitty went into halftime with a 29-25 lead.
Mitty center Gavin Ripp picked up his third foul at the 5:47 mark of the third, forcing Mitty coach Tim Kennedy to go with a smaller lineup. Even without Ripp on the floor, the Monarchs took advantage of the increased spacing on the floor.
Hutcherson scored eight points in the third quarter alone and helped build the Mitty lead back up to eight. Hutcherson continued to get to the basket at will in the fourth quarter as the Monarchs tried to pull away.
“I think it was something I had to do,” Hutcherson said about taking over the Mitty offense in the second half. “There was a momentum shift as soon as Gavin had to come out. So, I felt like I had to take over a little bit to just keep us in the game.”
For a moment it looked like Mitty was going to get out of Danville with a slim victory. Moxley botched a wide open layup to cut the Mitty lead to three with just under five minutes left in the fourth.
But Moxley redeemed himself and saved his best performance until the waning minutes of the game.
With the Wolves down three with 1:17 left, Isaak fired a deep 3-pointer that airballed. Moxley rushed in from the other side of the lane to grab the offensive rebound and found Isaak cutting to the basket. Moxley found Isaak and the Wolves’ leading scorer made a layup to make the score 49-48.
On the ensuing Wolves’ possession, SRV took the ball out of bounds and ran a play initially designed for Deely to get a layup. But as Moxley set the screen, he noticed both Mitty defenders go with Deely to the left side of the basket. Moxley immediately dove to the right side of the hoop where Matthew Diekmann found him wide open and Moxley converted the go-ahead layup to put the Wolves up 50-49.
“His high school career could have been over six weeks ago,” Botteen said about Moxley. “Here he is six weeks later and he had one of the biggest rebounds and one of the easiest layups I’ve ever seen. I’m so glad for him. That was a good moment.”
Mitty had one last chance to tie on its last possession of the game, but Ripp’s deep 3-pointer fell short as SRV punched its ticket to the NorCal regionals.
Saturday’s loss was a tough pill to swallow for Mitty. The Monarchs had their eyes set on a NorCal final berth after beating their last two opponents by a combined margin of 32 points.
“It was heartbreaking for our seniors who were huge parts of our program,” Kennedy said. “They threw themselves into it for so long just to help this program to see it keep building and getting better.”
SRV will be looking to go back to its first state title game since 2015 when it plays Granada in the NorCal regional final. In 2015, SRV won the title against Chino Hills who was led by current Chicago Bulls point guard and former No. 2 overall NBA draft pick Lonzo Ball.
Botteen, who was in his first year as head coach when he won the 2015 title, said he sees similarities between this year’s SRV team and the squad that won it nine years ago.
“Both teams play for each other,” Botteen said. “The 2014-2015 team was my first year and they had a knack for learning how to play with each other. There was also a lot of veteran leadership there. The similarities between this year’s team and 2014-2015 are parallel to one another.”
With Granada’s 70-53 win over No. 1 seed Clovis West Saturday in Fresno, it sets up the fourth meeting between the the Matadors and the Wolves. Granada got the best of SRV in the first matchup, but the Wolves won the next two in dominant fashion.
SRV and Granada have had a growing rivalry the past few years which makes Tuesday’s NorCal final have even more stakes.
“It’s always a superheated game,” Isaak said. “(Granada) was in the state finals last year. I’m excited to go play them and hopefully end their season.”