Coyotes reach final
By Wayne Harrison
wharrison@theacorn.com

The Calabasas boys’ basketball team advanced to the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division III-AA championship game, which will take place Saturday at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim. The time hadn’t been set as The Acorn went to press.

The Coyotes beat Servite, 83-71, in a game played at Katella High School in the semifinals last Friday night. They’ll face top-seeded Santa Margarita (26-3) which was a 51-37 winner over Arlington in the other semifinal.

"It’s everything I’d hoped for," said Calabasas head coach Russell White, whose team improved to 25-4 with the win over Servite. White went to The Pond twice before as an assistant coach at Chaminade, but said, "This is 8,000 times better."

Is White surprised by anything his team accomplishes at this point?

"I’ve kind of had that feeling all year," he said about not being surprised by anything. "We’ve had plenty of comebacks."

In the previous game, a 49-48 win over Artesia, Calabasas found itself in a 12-0 hole to start the game, but came back as usual. "I’ve been saying it all year. These guys are winners. They persevere, they figure out how to get it done."

White’s team beat Servite despite having an overflow crowd rooting for Servite. (White estimated that 1,500 of 1,800 who attended the game were Servite fans.)

"It was really loud," White said. "We did have a nice crowd but they were kind of drowned out by the Servite fans."

White expects a huge turnout for the championship game at The Pond. "We’ll have a lot of people there and it should be a lot of fun," he said.

What does White know about the championship opponent, Santa Margarita?

"They’re huge—6-11, 6-8, 6-6," he said regarding their front line. Calabasas’ tallest player is 6-foot-8 center Steve Saunders. "And they’ve got good guards and they play a two-three zone (on defense)."

Win or lose, the Coyotes have qualified for the subsequent state tournament. That will start the following Tuesday.

"It’s a huge credit to the players that we have," White said. "There’s a lot of good players in that group of 15 guys."

Drew Housman, a 5-8 junior point guard, scored 32 points in the win over Servite. "He controlled the game," White said. "Anyone watching that game knew that Drew controlled it."

But it was a team effort. Conrad Fitzgerald had 15 points and 12 rebounds, Mark Einhorn contributed 15 points and nine rebounds, and Saunders had 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Calabasas led over Servite, 41-31, but Servite scored 10 straight third-quarter points to even the score at 41. However, the Coyotes responded with a run of their own, built the lead to 12, and were never seriously threatened thereafter.

How will his team prepare for the top seed? "We’ve got them on tape a couple of times, as I’m sure they do us," said White. "We’ll work on our zone offense and try to schedule the week so we peak on Saturday as opposed to Wednesday, Thursday or Friday."

In attacking the zone it will be essential to "Pass the ball real well," said White, "and (run) up the floor on misses and makes. We have to beat the zone up the floor. Strategy-wise it’s nothing different. We’re not going to put in special plays. It’s just a matter of focusing on a few things."

Winning a league championship was the primary goal this season for Calabasas. When that didn’t happen because Thousand Oaks narrowly beat Calabasas in the league championship game, the Coyotes had to re-prioritize.

"We got beat that night," White said. "In the locker room after the game, we decided the only thing that would make us feel better was winning a (CIF) ring. And now we’re one game away from that. We’ll see how the boys play."