HAYWARD — It was evident from tip-off that No. 16 Head-Royce was outmatched.
On the other side of the floor was top-seeded Moreau Catholic – an East Bay powerhouse led by three-star Pacific commit Kellen Hampton.
At every position on the court, Moreau had at least four inches on any given Head-Royce player. When the game started, it was clear the Mariners were just bigger, faster and stronger than their Oakland opponents.
As expected, there was no upset in Wednesday’s Division II opening round game. Moreau smoked Head-Royce 88-47 at home to move on to the Division II quarterfinals where it will play Urban on Saturday.
But the bigger question after Wednesday’s game was whether or not Head-Royce should have even been in the Division II bracket. The Jayhawks came into Wednesday’s game with a 14-13 record, finished second in the Bay Counties East Division and had its best non-league win against Hayward in December.
Head-Royce coach Ryan Diew said he believes the new NCS format should be changed.
“I think the system is broken and it needs to be changed,” Diew said. “We definitely should not be competing in Division II against Moreau yet.”
Diew, who has a background in tech, created his own probability chart that mimicked MaxPreps algorithm. According to Diew, had Head-Royce beaten St. Joseph-Notre Dame in the BCL East Division playoffs last week, the Jayhawks would have had a higher seed in Division II and would have avoided playing a team like Moreau in their first round matchup.
But since Head-Royce played a strength of schedule much higher than its league opponents, the Jayhawks were essentially locked into the Division II bracket and the loss bumped the Oakland school all the way to No. 16.
Meanwhile St. Joseph was rewarded the No. 3 seed in Division III and has already secured a spot in the quarterfinals after beating Washington-Fremont on Tuesday.
While he acknowledged that the format needs to be fixed, Diew said the system worked the way it was meant to.
“We knew the cards that we were potentially going to be dealt,” Diew said. “The ball was in our court and we didn’t do what we needed to do in order to make sure that this didn’t happen.”
Diew scheduled tough games in hopes that his team would actually lose a few and get a higher seed in a lower division. If he had a chance to redo his team’s schedule, Diew said he would have replaced some of the Jayhawks’ tougher games with more winnable matches.
Head-Royce played a gauntlet of a schedule that included losses to St. Mary’s-Berkeley (NCS Division II) Northgate (NCS Division I), Bishop O’Dowd (NCS Division I), Archbishop Mitty (CCS Open Division), San Ramon Valley (NCS Open Division), The King’s Academy (CCS Division IV and Oakland (perennial Oakland Section powerhouse).
“We scheduled super, super hard but we lost a lot of those games,” Diew said. “I feel like if we would have replaced like, four of those games with games we should have won, we just would have bumped up higher up on in the Division II bracket.
“The thought process was to schedule a whole bunch of games we don’t think we can win and maybe, hopefully win one or two of them and lose enough to be able to then go to a lower bracket. Then, be strong enough because we played those tough teams and run through the lower bracket. But I wasn’t expecting us to lose those games and still be in a higher bracket.”
– Nathan Canilao
MOREAU CATHOLIC FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS
While it wasn’t a great night for Head-Royce, Moreau Catholic was firing on all cylinders.
Kellan Hampton scored a game-high 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Dominic Walker totaled 19 points and Cole Loud added 13.
Moreau went up 22-4 in the first quarter and didn’t look back. The Mariners cruised to the Division II quarterfinals behind hot shooting and a lockdown defensive performance.
“I told the kids before the game that yesterday there were two upsets in Division one yesterday, and there will be upsets today. We don’t want to be one of them,” Moreau coach Frank Knight said. “We’re really senior heavy, so the guys know it’s lose or go home. We don’t want to go home.”
– Nathan Canilao
HERITAGE UPSETS ST. MARY’S-BERKELEY
Heritage came into Wednesday’s Division II first round game with a losing record, but that didn;t matter as the Patriots stunned St. Mary’s-Berkeley on the road to advance to the quarterfinals.
“If we get to NCS, the last four months don’t matter,” Heritage coach Jeff Carter told the Bay Area News Group on Wednesday night. “In the NCAA, how many times have we seen a No. 14 seed win an upset and now they’re playing in the Elite 8 two weeks later.
“We got a whole new season starting today.”
Senior Nate Grube finished with a game-high 18 points. Josiah Thomas scored 11 points and Jace Bernard had eight.
The Patriots finished the regular season 11-14. Many anticipated the uber-athletic St. Mary’s team to meet Moreau Catholic in the final, but the Patriots have since spoiled those plans.
“We defended well and rebounded,” Carter said. “That was the goal.”
Heritage will play another upset team in No. 11 Marin Catholic, which defeated No. 6 McKinleyville, on Saturday on the road.
– Nathan Canilao
BIG NIGHTS OF UPSETS IN BOYS BRACKETS
In the NCAA Tournament, a big day of upsets can alter a bracket drastically.
Periodically, and often unpredictably, they seem to come in waves. That’s what happened on Wednesday night in various NCS boys divisions.
In Division II, double-digit seeds Heritage (No. 14) and Marin Catholic (No. 11) are set to face off in the quarterfinals after knocking off No. 3 St. Mary’s-Berkeley and No. 6 McKinleyville, respectively.
In Division IV, three double-digit seeds advanced to the quarterfinal round. No. 13 San Lorenzo knocked off No. 4 Redwood Christian, No. 12 Windsor toppled No. 5 Gateway and No. 11 St. Patrick-St. Vincent beat No. 6 Casa Grande.
Both Division II and Division IV are guaranteed to have a double-digit seed reach the semifinals. San Lorenzo and Windsor will face off in the quarters on Saturday.
In Division VI, No. 10 Valley Christian of Dublin laid a smackdown on No. 7 Averroes, winning 57-32. Valley advances to face No. 2 St. Vincent de Paul on Saturday.
On the girls side, chalk ruled the day. The biggest upsets were in 8-9 games, where the No. 9 seed won in both Division II (Pinole Valley) and Division IV (Archie Williams).
Pinole Valley won by a single point, topping Lick-Wilmerding 60-59 on the road.
– Christian Babcock