With 20 Wins, Las Positas Gears Up For Strong Finish

After reaching 20 wins with lightning speed, the Las Positas men’s basketball team will try to keep the positive energy flowing over the final two weeks of Coast Conference-North Division play.

Las Positas (20-4, 8-1) will close conference action with three road toughies, beginning with Friday’s showdown against state No. 1 CCSF (23-1, 8-0) in San Francisco. The Hawks will visit Skyline on Feb. 20 and Canada-Redwood City Feb. 22.

“We do control our own destiny and that’s a nice spot to be in,” Hawks coach James Giacomazzi said. “We talked to the guys and we’ve got basically three, one-game ‘playoff’ situations and you need to take care of the one in front of you first. If we go 3-0, we have an opportunity for at least a co-championship, but you can’t go 3-0 without going 1-0, so we’re focused and we’re ready to give our best effort come Friday.”

Las Positas has bounced back with a five-game winning streak after a 92-63 loss to CCSF on Jan. 23. Impressively, the Hawks are just one of six teams in the North with 20 wins.

"Certainly any time you can win 20 games at this point in the season, you're in pretty good shape," Giacomazzi said.

Giacomazzi felt his team got out of sync in the second half in the lopsided defeat to CCSF after a respectable first half. Overall, CCSF outrebounded Las Positas 56-32.

“Not only did their size and then the rebounding affect us, but we let the way the game was being called, the fouls, all these things that we couldn’t control, bother us more than it should have,” he recalled.

Las Positas has a marquee talent in freshman Michael Hayes (West-Tracy), who is ranked fourth in the state at 24.0 points a game and averages nearly 10 rebounds a game. Heady sophomore John Ketchel (Freedom-Oakley) had 18 points and 14 assists in a wild 96-94 win over Chabot on Friday. He continues to lead the state in assists per game at 8.0.

Sharp-shooting Tyler Langowski (Livermore) and Nana Appiah (Patterson) have given the Hawks a lift off the bench. Langowski had 11 points in an 86-76 win over Ohlone on Feb. 6, going 3 of 3 from 3-point range. Appiah had 11 points, eight boards and six assists. Against Chabot, Langowski again made three 3-pointers.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Las Positas sophomore Ashley Hart enters the final three games of the season in a three-way tie for fourth in the state in scoring averaging 22.0 points per game. Hart had 23 points and 10 rebounds in a 75-51 loss to Chabot in the Coast-North of Feb. 8.

The Hawks will host College of San Mateo at 5 p.m. Saturday – the final home game for the sophomores. Las Positas closes the regular season at CCSF on Feb. 15 and at Skyline on Feb. 20.