Former teammates and roommates and always BFFs, there are no secrets when Marty Ellis and Mike Tully match wits as longtime basketball coaches in the CIF San Diego Section. “We’re like brothers,” both said.
“Playing against my buddy, Mike, is like a chess match,” Ellis said. “You always have to counter what he’s doing. He’s very smart.”
Ellis and top-seeded Olympian did a fine job of countering the strategies and nuances of Tully and No. 3 Monte Vista Friday night in the San Diego Section Division 4 championship at Clairemont High School.
Give it to the 5-foot-7 freshman and watch him dominate worked very well.
The rookie, Tristan Anderson, had 14 of his game-high 18 points in the first half as Olympian (28-3) ran away with a 50-36 win over Monte Vista (23-9) in front of a raucous standing-room-only crowd of 800 in the tiny Clairemont gym.
“It feels amazing,” Anderson said. “We put everything on the line for this, and we got it.”
It was the second CIF title for Ellis in his nine seasons at Olympian. Plus, Ellis was the catalyst when he and sixth-man Tully lost to Torrey Pines and Scot Pollard in the Division 2 championship in 1992.
“We grew up together, played four years together at Monte Vista,” Ellis said. “I used to live with him in high school. That’s what makes this so special.”
The stage was set early. Olympian raced to a 15-4 lead and maintained at least a nine-point advantage through the rest of a 26-14 first half. The Eagles took a 26-12 lead on Anderson’s fast-break layup as he outscored the Monarchs, 9-8, in the quarter.
The Eagles’ biggest lead was 33-14 after B.J. Humphries (10 points) drained a 3-pointer three minutes into the third quarter.
With a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, Ellis directed his Eagles to fly low and slow. Thanks to the ball-handling skills of Anderson and Jordan Walker (11 points), an offensive rebound by Humphries and a steal by Nathan Cacao, Olympian kept the ball in its end before Cacao put back another offensive rebound for a 48-32 lead with 3:42 left.
“They did a great job of running the clock,” Tully said. “And we didn’t rebound well.”
Explained Anderson: “Coach tells us to be smart during the game, adjust to the game. We scored a lot early and then slowed it way down in the fourth quarter.”
One of the Monarchs’ top players, Yousif Al-Asady, had been sick for days but played anyway. He made a pair of 3-pointers but was not his normal self. Jalen Brown led the Monarchs with 12 points, and Dorian Fillmore added 11 before sustaining a leg injury in the fourth quarter.
“We missed some shots early,” Tully said. “We make those shots, we’ll get some confidence. But it wasn’t our night. Hats off to Marty and Olympian.”
Both teams advance to the Southern California Regionals next week.
Escondido beats Kearny for title for D5 title
Jasmine Reyes (19 points) led four players in double figures to lead top-seeded Escondido (29-12) to a 74-53 Division 5 title and its first CIF San Diego Section championship. Victoria Escobedo added 13 points, Anaya McGlory 11 and Sydney Dumbauld 10 as the Cougars advanced to the Southern California Regionals next week.
Shamya Boyd (14 points), Cirayah Sells (13), Niyali Osborne (11) and Samarah Estrada (10) led No. 2 Kearny (18-13). Kearny has not won a CIF title since Triola Alexander led the Komets to three in a row (1998-2000).
Coached by Chris Williams, the Cougars had quarter leads of 14-9, 33-20 and 52-32 after a Reyes bucket capped a 12-0 run in the final 1:29 of the third quarter.
