Boys basketball clinches CIF Championship

Update 3/7: Samo defeated Temecula Valley 66-60 to win the championship.Coming off a rough 2014-15 season, the Samo boys basketball team came back stronger than ever as they crowned themselves the undisputed and undefeated Ocean League champions.“We have a lot of good shooters,” power forward Noah Wright (’16) said. “We get really good when we move the ball around. Sometimes we shoot too much, but when we get hot, no one can stop us.”Currently the team is tearing through the CIF playoffs and are gearing up for the championship game this Saturday. This would be the school’s fourth title.The basketball program has seen immense improvement in the span of one year as they went from a team that lost in the first round of CIF to a team that is now ranked 27 in the state. After three seasons, the Vikings are going back to Anaheim on Saturday, Mar. 5, to take on Temecula Valley High School for the CIF title.Guard Jonah Mathews (’16) has seen the team grow and is really proud of his teammates.“We’ve grown mentally, we’ve grown physically, and we’ve just grown emotionally,” Mathews said. “[In the] first game, we were making mistakes that weren’t even basketball. Now, we just make mental mistakes and we have grown from our mistakes. I love it.”A key factor to their successful season as of thus far has been their dominance at the three point line. The Vikings play a motion offense that stretches the defense out leaving holes for the team to exploit. This type of offense often results in a high amount of threes being shot.On the defensive side, head coach James Hecht uses a zone defense (usually a one-three-one) that wreaks havoc on most opposing high school teams. In addition, Samo’s speed and agility helps them jump into passing lanes and steal the ball frequently, creating easy points in transition.“Our team’s defense is what makes our team so hard to beat because there's so much variety,” guard Chailen August (’16) said. “We start the game in a 1-1-3 then we put in [guard] Tony [Holley III (’17)] and [guard] Rod [Henley II (’17)] and switch to a zone press that causes turnovers and speeds the team up.”However, their biggest asset was the bond that they were able to cultivate throughout the season, a bond that branched out far beyond the basketball court. Their chemistry helped orchestrate a successful harmony on the court which transitioned into unselfish play, constant ball movement and overall good game play. Chemistry is what separates good teams from great ones, according to Hecht.“It’s been a magical season,” Hecht said. “I can not express how proud we are of these guys. The team chemistry, the leadership, the comradery–it’s been second to none. I’ve been here 22 years, we’ve had a lot of good teams over the years–a lot of great players–but this team ranks right up there as being something very special.”