By David A. Willauer-Contributing Writer-Thursday, February 22, 2024-Rancho Buena Vista High School-Vista, CA: For the first time since the 2018-19 season, the Rancho Buena Vista Longhorns at 24-7 advanced to the championship round of the CIF Boys Division II San Diego Section Finals by a 62-59 victory over the 17-14 Bobcats of Sage Creek High School.
C J Aldrich led the Longhorns with 25 points as he hit 5 three pointers in the game and teammate Matthew Horn contributed with 13 and Trent Lolito contributed with 7 points.
Aaron Abrams Rancho Buena Vista Boys Head Basketball Coach: "A well coached team as Sage Creek is a battle tested team while playing in a tough conference, so we knew it was going to be a challenge and they (Sage Creek) defeated a very good Vista team and took us to the wire but our guys came through in the fourth quarter." "If you look at the numbers that we scored at a high pace but when were not scoring we tend to struggle sometimes, the other part of the game is rebounding, playing our defense along with communicating, those are the things we stressed to our guys those were the key things that carried us to the win "
"I felt that C J Aldrich came through for us and shot the ball well which is very key for us but what matters for us is that we put the ball in the hole that's what our guys do moving to the championship finals on Friday there are some things that we have to fix in practice " said Coach Abrams.
The Bobcats conclude their season at 17-13 as they were led by Elijah Stephens with 20 points and teammate Elias Samady contributed with 16 points.
Footnote: This is Rancho Buena Vista's 3rd trip to the CIF Section San Diego Section Final last time was in 2017-18 where they were defeated by Carlsbad at the University of California at San Diego. The other year was in 1997-98 when they won their last CIF Title.
Other SD CIF Tournament action
Boys
Mission Bay 54 San Marcos 42 SM: Derek Tuason 12 Mazen El Bissat 10
C J Aldrich led the Longhorns with 25 points as he hit 5 three pointers in the game and teammate Matthew Horn contributed with 13 and Trent Lolito contributed with 7 points.
Aaron Abrams Rancho Buena Vista Boys Head Basketball Coach: "A well coached team as Sage Creek is a battle tested team while playing in a tough conference, so we knew it was going to be a challenge and they (Sage Creek) defeated a very good Vista team and took us to the wire but our guys came through in the fourth quarter." "If you look at the numbers that we scored at a high pace but when were not scoring we tend to struggle sometimes, the other part of the game is rebounding, playing our defense along with communicating, those are the things we stressed to our guys those were the key things that carried us to the win "
"I felt that C J Aldrich came through for us and shot the ball well which is very key for us but what matters for us is that we put the ball in the hole that's what our guys do moving to the championship finals on Friday there are some things that we have to fix in practice " said Coach Abrams.
The Bobcats conclude their season at 17-13 as they were led by Elijah Stephens with 20 points and teammate Elias Samady contributed with 16 points.
Footnote: This is Rancho Buena Vista's 3rd trip to the CIF Section San Diego Section Final last time was in 2017-18 where they were defeated by Carlsbad at the University of California at San Diego. The other year was in 1997-98 when they won their last CIF Title.
Other SD CIF Tournament action
Boys
Mission Bay 54 San Marcos 42 SM: Derek Tuason 12 Mazen El Bissat 10
