Five days after scoring a season-low 34 points in a Central Coast Section Division I semifinal loss to Menlo-Atherton, the Mountain View High boys basketball team nearly reached the century mark in winning its Northern California Division IV playoff opener.
The eighth-seeded Spartans blew out No. 9 Athenian of Danville 91-68 Tuesday night (March 1), scoring 30 more points than they had in any game this season.
Host Mountain View sank 16 of its 32 shots from 3-point range, taking advantage of the shorthanded Owls (missing two starters) and its 1-3-1 zone defense.
“I was confident going in that we were going to be able to score the ball,” Spartans coach Kevin Mack said. “I just felt good about our guys and our matchups with them. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to make shots, and our guys shot the ball with confidence tonight and didn’t hesitate.”
Mountain View (20-7 overall) got off to a stellar start, going up 20-3 on guard Joey Peir’s 3-pointer with 2:33 left in the first quarter. Athenian (19-5) cut its deficit to 10 by quarter’s end, only to see the Spartans pull away in the second. Mountain View opened the period with a 13-4 run featuring a pair of 3s from Peir.
Up 54-34 at halftime, the Spartans grew their advantage to 30 midway through the third quarter behind the shooting of Joe Brown, who knocked down a pair of 3s. Mountain View capped the quarter with a top-of-the-key 3 from Armaan Hedayati, who just beat the buzzer.
Mountain View made 10 of its 14 shots in the third, entering the final quarter comfortably ahead at 78-50. Mack emptied his long bench by then, resulting in 12 players getting in the scoring column Tuesday. Three Spartans joined Peir as double-digit scorers: Brown (20), Max Telkamp (14) and Jackson Kim (11).
“I think it just gave us a lot of confidence when we saw the ball go in,” said Peir, who made four 3s in the game to finish with 12 points. “We shot the ball well tonight, so hopefully we can carry that into our next game.”
The Spartans travel to Redding Thursday to take on top-seeded Enterprise (20-8) in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m.
“I feel good about our matchup, but I’ve got to dive into the film a little bit more,” Mack said. “If we shoot the ball like that, we’ll be in any game.”
If Mountain View pulls off the upset, it would visit No. 4 Justin-Sienna (18-11) or No. 5 Lowell (22-7) in Saturday’s semifinals.
