photos by Charlie McDonald (charlie.mcdonald@surewestsports.com)
by Mike Finnerty (mike.finnerty@surewestsports.com)
After weeks of talk and anticipation, the Sacramento area's top two boys basketball teams, No. 1 Jesuit and No. 2 Sheldon, stepped on the court at Jesuit High School Friday night to settle the matter and end the debate.
The atmosphere was that of a playoff setting with a packed gym, television cameras surrounding the court, and the usual rowdy and loud Jesuit student section, but the hype was more impressive than the result.
What started as a competitive game with Sheldon leading 37-35 at the half, quickly turned into a Sheldon showcase of layups, drives, three-point shooting and just about anything the Huskies wanted to do in the third quarter.
Sheldon (13-3, 2-0) outscored Jesuit (14-4, 1-1) by a 31-15 margin in third and cruised to an 88-70 win.
"We were pumped up for this game," said Sheldon head coach Joey Rollings. "We know they're a great team, we saw them play in their tournament. We knew we had to play defense or we would get beat by 20. I thought we did a great job defensively, great job rebounding, and we attacked them. They didn't know what to do after that."
Dakari Allen led Sheldon with 29 points as one of five guys in double figures for the victorious Huskies. Allen was well aware that the game had more importance than just another league win.
"We've been waiting for this game for a long time, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 going at it in Sacramento, and I'm just glad we came out with the win with a big difference," said Allen.
Jesuit and Sheldon spent the first half trading leads, but a Kurt Parker three-pointer gave Jesuit it's final lead of the game at 35-33 with 1:18 left in the first half. After that, Allen tallied the final four points of the second quarter giving Sheldon the two-point lead at the break that would belong to the Huskies until the game was over.
The key to victory was Sheldon's dominance on both end of the floor in the decisive third quarter, and it changed the direction of the game. At halftime, Coach Rollings was specific about what he wanted from his team coming out of the break.
"He told us that we can't have a let up like last game, so we came out and did what we had to do and it was over from there," said Allen.
"I just wanted the guys to keep up the intensity, keep of the defense, and not allow their three-point shooters to be wide open," said Rollings. "They hit five threes on us in the first half and that's unacceptable. The second half we just stayed on our man, we contained the ball and they didn't get as many easy looks."
Other big scorers on the night included Sheldon's D'erryl Williams who had 18 points, plus Kyiron Thomas and Ryan Manning who added 14 points a piece. Jared Hicks was also a big factor on both ends of the floor.
"Jared did a great, so did Ryan Manning. Ryan Manning had two threes, broke the game open, so I thought everyone did a great job tonight," said Rollings.
"I was overly satisfied with how things went tonight," said Thomas. My team really set the tempo today. We came out with the victory and we wanted to show them who the No. 1 team was."
As for the next time these two teams meet, that won't be until February 3, the second and final meeting of the regular season, and it will take place Sheldon High School.
For now, the taste of victory is sweet, but in a very tough Delta River League that also includes No. 4 Pleasant Grove, it doesn't get any easier.
"Always coming to Jesuit is hard to win. First game, second game, It's nice, it's a good feeling. We've got a tough league. Can't take a day off."
The win also leaves little doubt for Sheldon as to who the new number one team should be.
"We came out with the victory and we wanted to show them who the No. 1 team was," said Thomas.
Said Allen, "Yeah, we're number one, I don't know what's up with the rankings."