Enterprise tops Shasta in CIF Northern Section Division III boys basketball playoff opener
All five Enterprise starters scored in double figures as the Hornets won their Northern Section Division III boys basketball playoff opener 70-49 over rival Shasta on Friday at Manatowa Gymnasium.
Junior Wes Ramirez led the way for No. 4 Enterprise with 19 points while Alijah Collins added 14, sophomore JaKye Rawls chipped in 13 and Dawshawn Townsend and Justis Williams each had 11. The Hornets (20-8) advance to play No. 2 Foothill on Wednesday after the Cougars downed Red Bluff 59-42.
Here are four takeaways from the Hornets’ 21-point win over their rival:
An explosive third-quarter start
Enterprise took an eight-point lead into intermission, 39-31, despite outperforming Shasta (12-17) for most of the first 16 minutes.
The Hornets stung the Wolves with a barrage that boosted the lead from eight to 21 points over the first 3:26 of the quarter, hitting on their first seven shots.
“There was a letdown at the end of the first half,” Enterprise coach Abie Ramirez said. “They shot the ball well. We preached to them at half to make a statement in the first three minutes of the quarter.”
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That statement started with a Ramirez low-post bucket, followed by field goals from Collins and Williams. All three scores were deep inside the paint, including a point-blank, and uncontested, look by Williams off an inbounds under the basket.
Shasta turned the ball over on the inbounds after calling a timeout that led to a 10-footer from Collins, who also canned a 3-pointer on the next trip down the floor. Williams’ layup in transition capped the 13-0 run that boosted the halftime lead to 52-31 with 4:34 left in the period.
“I thought we were in reach and knew they were going to come out punching, trying to expand their lead,” Shasta coach Thomas Ammon said. “We talked about getting stops on the defensive end, three in a row and then we give up two baskets right off the bat.”
Shasta’s first basket of the second half was on Alek Elo’s drive down the lane.
Shasta recovers after a slow start
The Wolves missed on their first six attempts from the field to start the game and trailed 12-0 before freshman Julian Turner broke the ice with a bucket more than 4 minutes into the game.
Shasta would shoot 18% in the opening period (2-of-11), but only trailed 18-7 after the opening stanza. Enterprise was 8-of-14 from the field in the first.
The Wolves started the second with a transition basket by Shakespeare Taylor off an Enterprise turnover before Rawls got a friendly bounce, actually about six or seven, as his 3-pointer from the left wing stayed up on the rim for a while before finally dropping.
Enterprise built its lead to 33-19 with 2:34 left in the half on another Rawls triple. But the Wolves got a Keegan Snel three-ball, a Taylor free throw before Turner would close the quarter with eight straight Shasta points on two free throws and two buckets from range.
“It’s Shasta-Enterprise,” Abie Ramirez said. “It’s that rivalry and it doesn’t matter if it’s football or basketball.”
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Countering Enterprise’s size
Shasta, which doesn’t have a true post and only a few guys taller than 6-feet, had trouble with the big bodies of the Hornets — namely the 6-6 Raimirez and Williams.
To counter that, Ammon employed a rotation 10 players deep, including two junior varsity call-ups who got substantial minutes throughout the game in freshman Reed Ranker and sophomore Brandt Davis.
But the Shasta coach said while the height from Ranker and Davis was a plus, he was looking more for defensive intensity than sheer physical size.
“I was looking for defensive intensity and the young guys came in and gave effort,” Ammon said. “We were searching for it.”
“We didn’t do a good job with our offensive pace and shied from physical defense and that led to transition. Our defense hurt us on our offensive sets. When you’re undersized you have to battle.”
Rivalry rubber match and the next round
Shasta beat Enterprise in their first meeting, 63-46 on Jan. 18 at Enterprise. It was an intense battle that saw the Wolves use emotion to overcome the size difference.
Enterprise returned the favor on Feb. 9, beating the Wolves 65-55 at Harlan Carter Gym to close out the regular season. The game was close in the fourth quarter until the Hornets were able to use defensive stops and turnovers to turn a four-point edge into a 10-point win.
Now Hornets turn their attention to their other Shasta Union High School District rival in the Cougars.
Foothill won both regular-season meetings over the Hornets this season — 45-31 on Jan. 4 at Foothill and 53-50 on Jan. 26 at Enterprise. Foothill enters the second-round matchup 18-9 under first-year head coach John Carter.
The two schools didn’t meet in last year’s postseason with the Cougars falling to the Wolves in the first round while the Hornets lost to eventual champion Pleasant Valley in the semifinals.
This year, either Foothill or Enterprise is guaranteed to make the finals against either No. 1 PV or No. 2 Chico. The Division III finals are at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at Butte College.
Aaron Williams has covered North State sports for more than 20 years in print and on the radio. He works at MaxPreps as the national volleyball and girls basketball editor while also writing about football nationally.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Enterprise tops Shasta in Division III boys basketball playoff opener
