Milpitas got off to a fast start on its home court but never recovered after Clovis East ended first half on 8-0 run.
Milpitas got off to a fast start on its home court but never recovered after Clovis East ended first half on 8-0 run.
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MILPITAS — This wasn’t the way anyone associated with the Milpitas basketball team wanted its breakthrough season to come to an end.
Clovis East came into the jam-packed Milpitas gym and left a couple hours after the opening tip with a 73-45 blowout victory.
“They were deep and they shot it real well,” Milpitas coach Champ Wrencher said. “They had the better offensive players. We didn’t have an answer for them. They made more plays than we did and deserved that win.”
Milpitas (24-5) was seeded No. 2 in the CIF Northern California Division II regional after capturing the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division championship and winning two games against West Catholic Athletic League opponents in the Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs.
Clovis East (21-10) was seeded seventh after going 5-5 and finishing in fourth place in the six-team Tri-Rivers League.
So how do you explain the outcome? It would appear there must have been a significantly different level of competition the two teams faced prior to Thursday’s matchup.
“Early in the season we lost our three leading scorers,” Clovis East coach Adrian Wiggins said. “It was a hard January, but by February we kind of figured it out. But it’s a good league we play in. It definitely made us better.”
Milpitas jumped out to a 9-2 lead to start the game before Clovis East regrouped and made it 15-15 by the end of the first quarter. It was still dead even at 23-23 late in the second quarter, but the visitors closed the half on an 8-0 run to make it 31-23.
Milpitas never recovered.
Utilizing an aggressive, active, trapping defense and a fast-paced offense, Clovis East was up 47-36 at the end of the third quarter and completely blew the game open after that, winning the fourth quarter by a 26-9 margin.
“We were never able to get comfortable offensively,” Wrencher said. “Clovis did a great job. They wore us down. They played at a pace that was hard for us to endure playing five or six people.”
Jacob Wrencher led Milpitas with 18 points, but didn’t get much help from his teammates.
“We watched five games of theirs,” Wiggins said. “They’re skilled, smart and well-coached. We just got our tempo tonight. If they’d got their tempo it would’ve been hard for us. We got a little energy off the crowd. But they’re unselfish, I really like them.”
Tristan Beechler had 18 for Clovis East, Harold Duvall scored 17 and Donyell Booker 11.
Clovis East, which advances to play at Jesuit-Carmichael on Saturday in the NorCal semifinals, did something similar to a CCS team a year ago, traveling to San Jose and beating Branham 78-69 in the first round of the NorCal playoffs. And the Timberwolves did it with the same aggressive style they demonstrated against Milpitas.
So a season to remember came to an end for the Trojans, who in addition to the league championship and memorable performance in the CCS playoffs, won the first NorCal game in school history Tuesday, 68-67 over Woodcreek.
“Our guys had a great season, a beautiful run, made history,” Wrencher said. “It was fun. I’m proud they let me be a part of it, let me push them to their limits and accomplish something they didn’t have on their radar.”
