SACRAMENTO – Late in the fourth quarter, International-San Francisco guard Conor Maguire stood on the pristine Golden 1 Center Court and prepared to knock down his free throws against Diamond Ranch-Pomona on Friday afternoon.
Positioned directly in front of him were hundreds of his classmates who had made the trip to the state capital to watch their team win the CIF Division V title 71-52.
The group of raucous students serenaded him with chants of “MVP, MVP, MVP,” something that left Maguire stunned after he led the team with 32 points.
“That’s a pretty cool moment when the whole school is out there supporting you,” Maguire said. “I’ll remember that forever.”
The San Francisco school’s senior superstar Maguire made headlines in February when the 5-foot-10 senior scored 63 points and North Coast Section record 14 3-pointers.
While he didn’t reach that lofty total, Maguire still filled the sat sheet. He had five assists, grabbed seven rebounds and swiped four steals to key an offense that shot 15-25 from the field in the second half.
“When I saw that he wasn’t open, I saw really big gaps in the defense, and I knew my skills and knew I could attack and take advantage for our team,” said Jason Meisel, who made several big layups down the stretch and scored 11 points for International.
After his team’s comeback victory, coach Paul Cortes was emotional.
On his late father’s birthday, the ninth-year International coach lifted the school’s first-ever state championship.
“You know, everything I’ve done …. I know my dad is looking down on me, he’s watching,” Cortes said. “This is full circle now, and you know, that’s the reason why I got into it. Today is my dad’s birthday, so it makes it feel extra special.”
Maguire didn’t do it alone. Will Savill-Welch grabbed 18 rebounds and blocked seven shots as International rallied from a 30-24 halftime deficit thanks to a 16-0 third-quarter run.
“This year, I tried to mold my game into being more of a defensive center,” Savill-Welch said. “We have a lot of great guys on the perimeter defnsively, so if I could cover the interior, we were going to be excellent defensively.”
International won the Bay Counties Central Division title, but fell 50-41 in the NCS Division V title game.
The Jaguars would get their revenge a little over a week later in the NorCal D-V semifinals, taking down Alhambra 50-49 as Maguire scored 39 points.
International then beat Fortune Early College 71-63 to advance to the state title game. Diamond Ranch had control of the game early, but had no answer for International’s drives in the second half.
“They’re energy the whole time was better than ours, and they were more focused,” Ranch guard Devin Turner said.
