Expect the Yuba City High School gym to be packed tonight.
The Honkers (24-3) boys basketball team, fresh off only their third playoff win in three decades, will play host at 7 p.m. to two-time defending Sac-Joaquin Section Division II champion Rocklin (20-8) in the second round of the D-II playoffs.
The third-seeded Honkers held off 14th-seeded Cordova 76-62 in Wednesday's playoff opener while sixth-seeded Rocklin beat 11th-seeded Grant 67-60 in Rocklin.
Talented 6-foot-7 senior Zach Nelson had his usually superlative game in scoring 28 points for Yuba City. But the difference was sophomore guard Matt Hayes, who scored a career-high 21 points against a pesky Lancers bunch that never allowed the Honkers to get comfortable.
The Yuba City win erased some of the frustration of 2009 when lower-seeded Woodcreek came north and beat the Honkers 76-71 in the opening round.
Hayes, who played on the JV team as a ninth-grader, hit two critical three-point shots in the fourth quarter to keep Cordova at bay.
But the Honkers turned the ball over a lot against the smaller, quicker Lancers, similar pressure they can expect to face against Rocklin.
Last season, Rocklin was a monster team with 6-foot-10 Brendan Lane (now at UCLA), 6-8 Mads Frandsen and 6-5 Pat Stover (now playing baseball at Santa Clara) helping the Thunder reach the D-II state championship game.
Now, Rocklin is a guard-oriented squad behind seniors Cody Kale, Tony Williams, Justin Soria and Jackson Cummings, all of whom played significant minutes last season.
Against Grant, Kale had 21 points and Williams 15.
