Shorthanded, the Anzar boys’ basketball team managed to stay
close against visiting Kehillah Jewish on Tuesday night in the
opening round of the Central Coast Section Division V
Championships. But a 20-point effort by Max Kaplan helped lift the
No. 13 Rams past the No. 12 Hawks by a 55-47 margin in San Juan
Bautista.
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA
Shorthanded, the Anzar boys’ basketball team managed to stay close against visiting Kehillah Jewish on Tuesday night in the opening round of the Central Coast Section Division V Championships. But a 20-point effort by Max Kaplan helped lift the No. 13 Rams past the No. 12 Hawks by a 55-47 margin in San Juan Bautista.
The loss eliminates Anzar from postseason play.
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Jesse Ramirez and Andres Gomez each led the Hawks with 17 points apiece, while Jesse Soliz added eight points for Anzar, which finishes its season with a 10-10 overall record.
The Hawks were limited to just six players on Tuesday night, however. Trailing by just a 15-13 margin after the first quarter, Anzar’s deficit against Kehillah Jewish increased as the game wore on — from 15-13 to 25-22 to 43-36.
“We just couldn’t get over that hump,” Anzar head coach Ed Cecena said.
Kehillah Jewish had a strong inside-outside presence, anchored by post player Zack Jenkins in the paint, who Cecena believed was roughly 6-foot-5.
“He only had eight points,” Cecena added. “But he had a lot of opportunities inside and we had to pay attention to him.”
Which then opened up the outside perimeter, allowing Kaplan to set up shop. The senior guard drained six 3-pointers from the outside to equal 18 of his game-high point total.
“You’ve got to pick your poison,” said Cecena, who felt the Rams also did their pregame homework with constant double teams of Ramirez, who had been averaging nearly 20 points per game this season for the Hawks.
“They had a good game plan and stuck with it,” he added.
Christian Monroy, Alex Samuels and Matt Espinoza combined for five points for Anzar, while Kehillah Jewish’s Nadav David chimed in with 13 points and Braden Katzman added 12 points.
Kehillah Jewish (11-11) advances to the Division V second round as a result, where it will square off at No. 5 Priory (10-11) on Thursday night at 7 p.m.
As for the Hawks, they finished their season with a 10-10 record after taking second place in the Coastal Athletic League with a 9-3 mark.
“It was a good reward for the kids,” Cecena said of the trip to the Division V playoffs. “They grew up as a basketball team.
“I couldn’t be prouder of this group of guys. They did the best they could.”
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
KLAH 15 10 18 12 55
ANZR 13 9 14 11 47
Kehillah Jewish (55): M. Kaplan 1 6 0-0 20, N. David 5 1 0-0 13, B. Katzman 5 0 2-2 12, Z. Jenkins 4 0 0-0 8, J. Tal 1 0 0-0 2.
Anzar (47): C. Monroy 1 0 0-0 2, A. Samuels 0 0 1-2 1, J. Soliz 4 0 0-0 8, J. Ramirez 3 3 2-2 17, A. Gomez 8 0 1-1 17, M. Espinoza 1 0 0-0 2.
Note: In another first-round game on Tuesday, No. 11 Eastside Prep (7-18) defeated No. 13 Kirby (8-10) by a 59-31 margin, and will visit No. 6 St. Lawrence in Thursday’s second round. Tip-off is 7 p.m.
