High school basketball: Antelope racks up the rebounds; Granite Bay still looks tough
And in this corner: the Antelope Titans.
Antelope has been a heavyweight on the boards this season, emphasizing that rebounding wins boys’ basketball games.
“Control the boards, control the game,” says Titans’ head coach Mike Dresser.
At a recent Sacramento-area coaches convention, Dresser borrowed an idea from San Joaquin Delta women’s basketball coach Gina Johnson: Reward your top rebounder each night with a custom heavyweight championship belt.
The idea caught on with the Titans and has become a competitive battle royale for caroms this season. The extra motivation to become the individual rebounding champ until the next game has paid collective dividends for the 13-2 Titans. Antelope entered the week second in the Sac-Joaquin Section at 38.7 rebounds per game.
“In basketball, we always talk about how to be unselfish,” Dresser said. “But rebounding is the one area where you can be as selfish as possible. Go get that ball.”
Leading the intersquad battle of the boards is 6-foot-7, 240-pound senior center Majer Sullivan, a 10-time belt holder with a season high of 16 boards Tuesday night in a come-from-behind 64-51 win at Granite Bay. He proudly draped the belt over his shoulder after Tuesday’s win.
“This rebounding belt, right here? It’s a mighty nice belt, you know?” said a gloating Sullivan, whose 16 boards on Tuesday were two off of Antelope’s school record for a single game. “It’s mine. I have to donate it sometimes. But whoever gets the most rebounds earns it.”
Following Sullivan is 6-7 junior Cabrayon Odom, who averages 6.4 rebounds per game and has held the title belt on three occasions. Rounding out the field is 6-8, 280-pound senior Montell Shelton and senior guard Trevon Weatherspoon, each with one title reign apiece.
Weatherspoon, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior guard, especially relished his title reign. With 12 rebounds last Friday at the Carmel Invitational, Weatherspoon proudly rocked the strap around his waist back to the hotel, to dinner at Chili’s, to breakfast the following morning and to the pier at Old Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey. Strangers curiously asked Weatherspoon about the belt, and he gladly explained.
“I had a lot of fun because I was sharing a room with (Sullivan), and I was just shoving the belt in his face,” Weatherspoon laughed. “I had to let him know I got it.”
Dresser noted that Weatherspoon wasn’t ready to play varsity as a junior last spring. He was assigned to play at the JV level to earn minutes and develop his game, a task at which most juniors would scoff.
“He took that challenge and ran with it,” Dresser said of Weatherspoon. “A lot of players don’t want that stigma of being a junior on the JV team. He took advantage of it.”
Now a senior varsity starter, Weatherspoon entered the week tied for the team lead in scoring. He also goes for 4.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game and leads the team with 17 3-pointers.
“When I got set down to JV, I was kind of thinking like, ‘Oh, I’m trash,’ ” Weatherspoon said. “But that just motivated me to get into the gym and do better. I was working every single day. Every time I got to play basketball, I played basketball.”
The Bee’s No. 12 team in its latest boys’ hoops rankings, Antelope is off to its best start since a 14-2 charge in 2014–15. Its two losses have been by a combined nine points. Even in defeat, they weren’t outrebounded.
The Titans also feature senior point guard and captain Donovan Johnson, who “takes on the challenge to defend the other team’s best player, regardless of position,” Dresser says. Senior forward Max Driffin and sophomore guards JuJu Alias and Logan Melton are also key contributors for Antelope. Alias and Melton combined for 11 of the team’s 26 fourth-quarter points against Granite Bay, erasing a 10-point second-half deficit.
“There wasn’t any panic,” Dresser said. “The trust between the players is huge.”
Antelope begins its Capital Valley Conference slate with Yuba City on Jan. 4.
Plenty of firepower for Granite Bay
Despite Tuesday’s result, area hoops followers shouldn’t sleep on the Grizzlies.
Junior guard Yaqub Mir took over the second quarter, scoring 18 points with five from beyond the arc. Mir finished with 29 points and eight 3-pointers, each triple garnering chants from the Granite Bay student section of “ ‘Qub’s your daddy! ‘Qub’s your daddy!”
A varsity starter as a freshman, Mir entered Tuesday averaging 17 points per game this season. As long as he’s on the floor, the Grizzlies are a threat.
“He puts the time in and leads by example,” Granite Bay coach Jason Sitterud said of Mir. “He’s learning how to diversify his skill set to help those around him. He wants to become a better leader. It sounds easier than it is.”
Among Granite Bay’s supporting cast are senior T.J. Maveety (13 points Tuesday) and 6-7 junior Trevor Alfstad (nine points).
Sitterud, who’s been at Granite Bay since the school opened in 1996, has coached the varsity boys’ basketball team since 2006 and has more than 230 career wins. He’s also the longtime coach of Granite Bay’s girls’ golf team, which has won six straight Sac-Joaquin Section titles and claimed its first CIF State championship in the fall.
The Grizzlies’ eight wins so far on the hardwood have already surpassed the win totals of their previous two seasons. They finish a stretch of six games in seven days against tough competition amid finals week at Granite Bay.
“It’s a gauntlet, but the guys are embracing it,” Sitterud said. “If we can challenge ourselves now, then we’ll be ready for the (Sierra Foothill League). We want to recreate that competitiveness now.”
No. 19 Granite Bay (8-7) opens SFL play on Jan. 7 against Whitney.