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It had been 32 years since the Marysville High boys basketball team had won a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Northern California state playoff game.
Even the Sac-Joaquin Section-winning team from 2023 lost in the opening round of NorCals to Burlingame.
This version of Marysville, which houses a similarity from the 2022-23 squad in Kayden Ellyson’s little brother, Karter Ellyson, snapped the three-decade long NorCal drought Tuesday with an 80-66 win over Foothill, a Northern Section power out in Palo Cedro.
The Cougars, seeded nine, hung with No. 8 Marysville for half the game, even taking a two-point lead at the break, before a 12-2 MHS run put the Indians back out in front, while Jordan Witt helped preserve the history-making moment with a couple of his five 3-pointers in the fourth to ice the game. Witt finished with a game-high 28 points, while junior Zackary Granger added 19 and juniors Isaiah Henry and Steven Martin chipped in 13 each to help Marysville advance into a date with top-seed Chico (19-10), the NSCIF D-III champ, tonight (Thursday) in the quarterfinals of the NorCal state D-IV boys bracket.
Caiden Cochran led Foothill (15-14) with 21 points in the loss.
“I started slow, but I trusted my work; myself; and I am confident in my shot,” said the senior Witt. “I think (in the) third quarter stuff started falling. I just wanted to see one go in tonight and I knew I had to keep shooting for that to happen.”
Marysville was beaten by one point in the SJS semis, ending its run at a second blue banner in three years. It was obviously hard to swallow for a lot of the boys, but it may have been the best thing for the team moving forward.
“It helped me refocus; lock back in,” Witt said.
Stan Easter, a man who has hovered over this program for many years, including the year it reigned supreme, said after the loss to Burlingame that the team focus simply wasn’t there.
“I told them that this doesn’t matter,” Easter said in an A-D report in March of 2023. “We wanted to win this game, obviously, but I told them that it was going to be tough. You got that emotional high of winning the section championship on Friday, and then you get one day to prepare for this team. One thing I feared about tonight happened: We just didn’t have the energy that we played with all year.”
So Easter invoked the approach of allowing his team to rest after the tough loss to Venture Academy, giving them a day before beginning the team’s next postseason run.
Ellyson was fuming after the Venture loss, but understood that the team still had lofty goals ahead and needs to be at its best when the time comes.
“We have unfinished business,” he said.
Regardless of what happens the rest of the way, Ellyson, by virtue of Tuesday’s outcome, has some bragging rights to hold over older brother and Marysville assistant Kayden Ellyson.
“We talk about it all the time and he wants it as bad as us because he’s helping us coach,” the younger Ellyson said. “I’m definitely gonna go home and talk a little trash, especially if we go get another one.”
Other area NorCal scores
Sonoma Academy 65, Gridley boys 60
Faith Christian girls 67, Rancho Cotate 31
Biggs boys at St. Vincent de Paul (n)
Continue reading...
Even the Sac-Joaquin Section-winning team from 2023 lost in the opening round of NorCals to Burlingame.
This version of Marysville, which houses a similarity from the 2022-23 squad in Kayden Ellyson’s little brother, Karter Ellyson, snapped the three-decade long NorCal drought Tuesday with an 80-66 win over Foothill, a Northern Section power out in Palo Cedro.
The Cougars, seeded nine, hung with No. 8 Marysville for half the game, even taking a two-point lead at the break, before a 12-2 MHS run put the Indians back out in front, while Jordan Witt helped preserve the history-making moment with a couple of his five 3-pointers in the fourth to ice the game. Witt finished with a game-high 28 points, while junior Zackary Granger added 19 and juniors Isaiah Henry and Steven Martin chipped in 13 each to help Marysville advance into a date with top-seed Chico (19-10), the NSCIF D-III champ, tonight (Thursday) in the quarterfinals of the NorCal state D-IV boys bracket.
Caiden Cochran led Foothill (15-14) with 21 points in the loss.
“I started slow, but I trusted my work; myself; and I am confident in my shot,” said the senior Witt. “I think (in the) third quarter stuff started falling. I just wanted to see one go in tonight and I knew I had to keep shooting for that to happen.”
Marysville was beaten by one point in the SJS semis, ending its run at a second blue banner in three years. It was obviously hard to swallow for a lot of the boys, but it may have been the best thing for the team moving forward.
“It helped me refocus; lock back in,” Witt said.
Stan Easter, a man who has hovered over this program for many years, including the year it reigned supreme, said after the loss to Burlingame that the team focus simply wasn’t there.
“I told them that this doesn’t matter,” Easter said in an A-D report in March of 2023. “We wanted to win this game, obviously, but I told them that it was going to be tough. You got that emotional high of winning the section championship on Friday, and then you get one day to prepare for this team. One thing I feared about tonight happened: We just didn’t have the energy that we played with all year.”
So Easter invoked the approach of allowing his team to rest after the tough loss to Venture Academy, giving them a day before beginning the team’s next postseason run.
Ellyson was fuming after the Venture loss, but understood that the team still had lofty goals ahead and needs to be at its best when the time comes.
“We have unfinished business,” he said.
Regardless of what happens the rest of the way, Ellyson, by virtue of Tuesday’s outcome, has some bragging rights to hold over older brother and Marysville assistant Kayden Ellyson.
“We talk about it all the time and he wants it as bad as us because he’s helping us coach,” the younger Ellyson said. “I’m definitely gonna go home and talk a little trash, especially if we go get another one.”
Other area NorCal scores
Sonoma Academy 65, Gridley boys 60
Faith Christian girls 67, Rancho Cotate 31
Biggs boys at St. Vincent de Paul (n)
Continue reading...
