Boys Basketball: Newark Memorial Eliminated From NCS by Castro Valley

Castro Valley 64, Newark Memorial 41

The Star: Kendall Andrews led all scorers with 18 points.

The Turning Point: Newark trailed early and never recovered from a dismal 13-point first half effort.

The Quote: “Give the kids credit. They battled but they (Castro Valley) deserved it,” Coach Craig Ashmore said. “There was a tremendous amount of effort, all the kids did good.”

What’s Next: Newark is eliminated from postseason contention. Castro Valley will play De La Salle for the NCS title Friday at 8:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s College in Moraga.

Bottom Line: The Cougars fall short of the NCS Championship.

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The Washington High gym boasts that it’s the home of the Huskies.

If you ask the Newark Memorial High boys basketball team Wedneday however, they’d probably argue it belonged to Castro Valley, as the Trojans carved a path through it to the North Coast Section Division I championship game.

A slow start coupled with Castro Valley’s stifling defense sank the Cougars’ chances at a spot in the NCS title game, with the Trojans charging past them for a 64-41 victory in Fremont.

Newark coach Craig Ashmore knew it would be hard to stop the Trojans.

“Give the kids credit. They battled but (Castro Valley) deserved it,” he said. “There was a tremendous amount of effort. All the kids did good.”

For Castro Valley coach Nick Jones, the victory was redemption.

“Newark has had our number the past couple of years,” he said. “It was a total team effort. They were tough. They were gritty. It was wild.”

The Trojans used six first-quarter steals to pull away early. Alex Foster grabbed an early steal and hooked up with Juan Anderson for an easy slam dunk. Anderson would later dunk it in again on a similar play from Warren Wright, which put Castro Valley up 18-6. The Trojans would finish with 13 steals.

“We didn’t want them to have easy baskets,” Jones said. “We knew we had better athletes so we wanted to press them. We just wanted to get our hands in the passing lane. We really made it difficult for them.”

Paths to the basket were few and far in between for Newark. The Cougars were only able to score 13 first half points due to the Trojans' stifling defense. The half was capped with a Dawson Johnson reverse over-and-under layup that gave Castro Valley a 31-13 lead going into the second.

A 21-point third quarter for the Trojans put the game away for good, as they took an insurmountable 52-25 lead into the fourth quarter.

Chris Read led Castro Valley with 14 points, including a rim-rattling dunk late in the fourth quarter that brought down the entire hoop. Roderick Bobbitt had 13 and both Foster and Anderson chipped in 12.

The win by the No. 1-seeded Trojans sets up a showdown with No. 2-seeded De La Salle this Friday at St. Mary’s College in Moraga.

Castro Valley 64, Newark Memorial 41

1

2

3

4

F

Newark Memorial

7

6

12

16

41

Castro Valley

18

13

21

13

64

Individuals — (fg ftm-fta tp)

Livermore

Rowland 1 1-2 3, Norris 2 0-0 5, Frenchwood 1 0-0 3, Andrews 7 4-8 18, Jones 1 1-2 3, Turner 1 0-0 2, Banford 0 0-3 0. Totals 16 6-9 41.

California

3-point goals: Frenchwood, Johnson, Anderson

Fouled out: None

Records: Newark Memorial 22-6, Castro Valley 27-1.

North Coast Section playoffs, semi-final, boys basketball, 1/28/11

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