To the pessimist, there was perhaps no way San Benito was going
to win its opening round CCS game against Fremont on Feb. 22.
To the pessimist, there was perhaps no way San Benito was going to win its opening round CCS game against Fremont on Feb. 22.
After all, having squandered a 19-point lead in the first half and a 16-0 run to open the game, the Balers found themselves trailing 54-53 to the Sunnyvale school with no time remaining on the clock — usually the deciding factors in any contest.
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But following a late shooting foul by Fremont — with no time left on the clock, mind you — only a pair of free throws by San Benito’s Cooper Sepulveda separated the outcome for the two schools.
Make one, and the game goes to overtime. Make both, and the Balers escape with a semi-improbable one-point victory. Miss both, however, and the Balers suffer perhaps their most shocking loss of the season.
Again, to the pessimist, there was no way San Benito was going to win.
“I was 100 percent sure that he would make both free throws, because, knowing Cooper, he had to,” Baler head coach Tracy Carpenter said recently. “That’s who he is.
“He’s pretty good when things are on the line.”
With a penchant for the clutch shot — he did, in fact, make both free throws to lift San Benito to a 55-54 victory over Fremont — it was Sepulveda’s basketball smarts, passing ability, offensive versatility and defensive prowess that made him stand out for the Baler boys’ basketball team this past season, while his knack for rising to the occasion in the big spot only further cemented his selection as the Free Lance/Pinnacle’s Most Outstanding Male Athlete of the Winter.
A versatile 6-foot-4 forward who was able to drive to the basket,
post up in the paint or knock down the mid-range-to-long-range jumper, Sepulveda was second on the team in scoring with 11.17 points per game this past winter, second on the team from behind the arc and first on the team at the free-throw line.
“He takes pride in what he does. I felt like, he knew he had to come through (against Fremont),” Carpenter said. “He’s incredibly focused and nothing was going to distract him. In high school, I’ve [seen] that very few times.”
With a few other last-second baskets to his name, too, including the go-ahead 3-pointer against Gilroy on Jan. 7 and the game-tying trey against Watsonville on Dec. 17, Sepulveda’s game seemed to improve as the challenges within the game proved more formidable.
Take performances against Fremont, Gilroy and Watsonville, for instance. When Sepulveda had to raise his game, he often did.
Often guarding the opposition’s best player, Sepulveda relished in being able to defend the likes of Salinas’ Frank Rogers and Palma’s Noah Allen — two of the top leading scorers in the Tri-County Athletic League this past season; two players that were held below their scoring averages while playing San Benito.
“It is a challenge,” he said. “When I guard a player that isn’t as good, I tend to play down. But when I get the best player, it elevates my game.
“Everyone’s always talking about offense, but I think defense is better — just going after it.”
Sepulveda’s high-standards approach is a characteristic that has followed him through other facets. He strived to be Valedictorian, and carries a 4.6 grade-point average this year and a 4.23 cumulative GPA as a result (he was recently accepted to UCLA, where he plans to study math).
He wanted to be MVP in the TCAL, too, and was selected first team all-league and to the five-member all-defensive team as well, after leading the Balers to a 9-3 mark and runner-up finish in the TCAL.
“Whatever I do, I set high goals,” Sepulveda said. “I always tried to guard the best player, if coach allowed me.
“Ever since I was young I thought that was fun, even if I got beat.”
Breakout season
Sepulveda said he didn’t start taking basketball seriously until the sixth grade when he began playing at Rancho San Justo and for the local NJB team. It was there he met Eric Elayda — San Benito’s sixth man this past season — and the two have played on the same basketball team pretty much ever since.
Like Sepulveda, Elayda delivered a clutch touch through much of this past season as well. None were perhaps bigger than his game-winning 3 on Feb. 4 to lift San Benito over Palma for the first time since 2005 — the shot coming off an in-bounds pass by Sepulveda.
“It was like, all those years of hard work were paying off,” Sepulveda said. “I knew he was gonna hit the 3 right when I passed it.”
The key in-bounds pass was also something tied to Sepulveda this past season. Although perhaps perceived as a secondary position on an important play, Carpenter said the game-winning shot never transpires if the in-bounds pass isn’t made cleanly and on time.
During a recent rash of poor in-bounds plays at the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships, in fact, Carpenter said he immediately thought of Sepulveda and his superior passing ability on the baseline.
“Not only do you have to get the guy the ball, but it has to be at the right place at the right time,” Carpenter said. “It’s the most important position. If you don’t get it to the guy, he’s not gonna score.”
All of this tied into Sepulveda’s high basketball IQ, a factor Carpenter believed set him apart from others. He wasn’t the fastest, or the tallest, or even the most athletic, but Sepulveda’s smarts — Carpenter said he was one of the smartest high school basketball player’s he’s ever coached, if not the smartest — often made the other determining factors in what makes a solid basketball player a bit of a moot point.
Watching film after games, Carpenter said Sepulveda was always “searching for a score,” and was making reads that weren’t necessarily evident in-game.
“Cooper is a highly intelligent player, I’d say over all else,” Carpenter said. “He was very skilled, very smart.
“He had length, but he wasn’t physically overpowering. But he made up for it with intelligence, timing, skill and versatility.”
As well as a knack for getting to the free-throw line, which led the three-year varsity player to be third in the TCAL at the charity stripe this past season.
His two freebies against Fremont, though — the game-tying and game-winning points with triple-zeros on the scoreboard — were not only the biggest made free throws of his prep career, but they were also his final shots at Hollister’s Mattson Gym.
And if the increased challenge of making those free throws appeared pressure-packed — in the playoffs, with no time left on the clock, to win the game — Sepulveda may have only added to the situation.
Just before he went to the line against Fremont, the San Benito senior recalled the last time he was in that situation two years ago against Gilroy. Trailing by one point to the rival Mustangs, a then-sophomore Sepulveda missed the front end of a 1-and-1, and San Benito lost to Gilroy by a lone point.
But able to avenge Gilroy with his go-ahead 3 on Jan. 7, Sepulveda also rid himself of his free-throw demons on Feb. 22 against Fremont.
As Carpenter pointed out, Sepulveda raised his game when the situation called for it. That’s who he is.
“I was just kind of happy I was able to be in that spot,” Sepulveda said. “Two free throws with no time left on the clock to win it? That’s never gonna happen again.”
