By MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
SEGUIN — The young Santa Rosa Warriors came in riding a wave of momentum and were two wins from the program’s third straight state tournament appearance.
It just wasn’t meant to be for the Warriors, who were stopped in their tracks by the bigger, faster San Antonio Cougars in a 79-48 loss in a Region IV-3A semifinal Friday night in Seguin.
Santa Rosa weathered the storm early, trailing 15-13 after eight minutes, but the Cougars built a 10-point lead off a 12-4 run to open the second quarter. That set the tone for the Warriors the rest of the day, as they struggled to compete with the Cougars’ size on both ends of the court.
“I knew (Cole) was going to be bigger,” Santa Rosa coach Johnny Cipriano said. “We were supposed to force them to become shooters, and we didn’t do that. We tried to jump and block shots. We shouldn’t have done that. We should’ve stayed behind them and forced them to shoot.”
Cole moves on to today’s 1 p.m. regional final against the winner of the game between Universal City Randolph and Odem. The Warriors finish the season 25-8 after winning their 15th straight district crown and qualifying for their fourth regional tournament in a row.
Santa Rosa never got its feet under it on offense, as it struggled with outside shooting throughout and had little success penetrating the paint, leading to seven field goals during the second and third quarters combined, including two in the third.
“It’s weird because we were working on our shooting all week,” Santa Rosa junior guard Mike Bermea said. “With these new balls, I guess we weren’t getting used to them. Nothing was falling. If our shots were falling, it’s a way different game.”
Cole led by 15 at the half, outscored Santa Rosa 21-8 during the third to push its lead to 28 and scored at least 20 points in each of the final three quarters.
Santa Rosa struggled to get to the line, going 9 of 12 from the stripe. Cole went 20 of 27 from the line.
The Warriors looked timid in the paint. Freshmen guard CJ Olivarez said inexperience and hesitation when driving to the hoop against Cole 6-foot-10 freshman Vincent Iwuchukwu played a role in the Warriors’ offensive struggles.
“Since it was our first time here, I’m sure a lot of us were really nervous,” he said. “(Cole) was also really lanky, and we couldn’t really shoot. Coach tells us in practice to go up with our shots, but since (Iwuchukwu) was 6-10 we were scared. So we changed our shots. When we do that, our shots don’t fall.”
Olivarez led the Warriors with a game-high 20 points, 13 of which came during the fourth quarter. Bermea added 12 for the Warriors.
Cole had four players in double digits, led by Iwuchukwu with 17 and Jalen Barner with 16.
Cipriano was pleased with the run this season as it gave his young players, who are all expected to return next season, valuable experience.
“There was a lot of tears and stuff going on in the locker room,” Cipriano said. “I told them that I don’t want you to forget this; I want you to remember it. Whenever you don’t feel like doing anything, remember this moment and go to work. Every year we do something like this, the target gets bigger and bigger. I know everyone in our district wants to be the team who beats us, and I’m sure now any team from San Antonio on down wants to take care of us and make sure we don’t get back here.”