Venture Academy, Ripon Christian boys basketball win SJS title while Escalon girls lose

Another three San Joaquin County prep basketball teams went on the road in search of a Sac-Joaquin Section championship in the Division 4 and 5 levels.

Escalon girls, Venture Academy boys, and Ripon Christian boys competed for blue banners at an unfamiliar big stage, the University Credit Union Center at UC Davis. The day filled with hoops ended with Venture Academy and Ripon Christian bringing home Division 4 and 5 blue banners to the 209.

Here are the highlights from these three primetime championship matchups.

Leave it to Mario

The Mustangs had suffered an SJS Division 4 finals loss just two years ago and they refused to go through it again against No. 3 seed Natomas. Leading them was relentless senior Mario Williams Jr. who dropped 39 points to help his team capture Venture Academy's first basketball section championship winning 78-74.

“This meant a lot to me personally,” Williams said. “I remember that feeling during most of our sophomore year, looking at our two seniors crying, Coach King was crying so we knew we didn’t want to come back to that same feeling. We worked all season for this and I’m just happy we came up on top.”

It was a dogfight to get there despite the senior guard’s lights-out shooting, Natomas would not go away. With just a minute left the Nighthawks cut Venture Academy’s lead to three points. Luckily the Mustangs had key contributions from seniors DaeLeon Neal and Toriano Woods Jr..

Neal scored 13 points knocking down crucial free throws at the end of the game to help the Mustangs pull away. Woods added 10 points and helped cause a Natomas in-bound turnover to stifle the Nighthawks' comeback attempt.

All the pieces came together just as head coach Eric King drew it out earning his first section championship at the helm of the Mustangs basketball program.

“I mean honestly I’m trying to keep it together but this means everything to us,” King said. “This school has never done anything like this. We've had our backs against the wall, we're a small school and we’ve played against top competition all year. The boys needed their final moments to validate all the hard work they’ve been doing and tonight was the night.”

Ripon Christian’s difference-maker

It was clear by about the third quarter that Ripon Christian was about to capture its 13th SJS title. The Knights man-handled Futures for the Division 5 blue banner beating the fellow Knights 67-47. A big key to their dominating victory was senior Jace Beidleman who towered over his opponents standing at 6-foot-9.

SJS Basketball Finals: SJS basketball Finals: St. Mary's brings home a blue banner, Lincoln, Manteca fall short

“As good as he looks, he’s even better than that,” said Mark Hofman, Ripon Christian boys’ basketball head coach. “What he does is cause other teams to not do what they’re used to and a lot of high school teams when you take away their primary offensive options [they] have trouble. He takes up so much space and he does change the game.”

With Beidleman filling the paint Futures struggled offensively for most of the game. His lockdown defense would turn into a smooth offensive night for Ripon Christian. He led the Knights with a double-double scoring 18 points, 18 rebounds as well as seven assists, and six blocks to top off his stat line.

When it wasn’t Beidleman, senior Luke Crivello and sophomore Jake Vander Veen were knocking down buckets. Both guards ended the night with 15 points. Beidleman, Crivello, and senior Preston Zuidervaart are the only three Knights who can say they are back-to-back Division 5 champs after being a part of last year’s championship squad.

“It feels good, especially since a lot of people didn’t think we would go back-to-back,” Crivello said. “RC is always going to be around to win sections.”

Big stage experience vs inexperienced

Escalon girls basketball had its hands full in its SJS Divison 4 finals matchup against No. 1 seed Colfax. The Falcons were not only the reigning champs for this division but they are a dynasty winning the second-most blue banners in SJS girls basketball history behind St. Mary’s. With championship experience on its side, Colfax beat the Cougars, 64-48.

“The girls haven’t said a word since we got in the locker room so they are visibly upset,” said Joe Dalpogetti, Escalon girls' basketball head coach, after the game. “ It was frustrating to watch us miss so many layups that we've been making all year and it kind of ended up being the separation of the game.”

The nerves were real for the Cougars who played in its first-ever section championship game. From missed layups to turnovers, they couldn’t quite find their groove on the University Credit Union Center floor. Their lead scorer, senior Sammy Lang was held without a bucket until the fourth quarter while Colfax could do no wrong offensively.

The Falcons were led by junior Juliette James who eclipsed 1,000-career points by scoring 18. For Escalon, freshman Arianna Velasco stepped up. She ended the game by scoring 16 points and reeling in five boards. In the end, Colfax’s playoff experience would trump the Cougars who according to Dalpogetti was typically the team with more experience.

“For me, it looks like a team that has been here before versus a team that hasn't been here before,” he said. “We’ve been the more experienced team in a lot of our games and usually when the game gets crazy, at the end, we’re the team to take control. But they were the ones who were executing and it just didn’t work out.”

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Record reporter Shannon Belt covers sports. She can be reached at sbelt@recordnet.com or on Twitter @ShannonBelt3. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: VA, RC boys basketball win SJS titles, Escalon girls fall short