Prep boys’ basketball: Grant adds to school’s section titles with win over Granite Bay
The Grant Pacers have run out of room for the hardware in their trophy cases on campus with championships in across the board.
Success for decades, making Del Paso Heights a home of champions, where athletics bind the community, where the student-athletes are heroes and role models for the next generation, where the youth and elders wear T-shirts that read, “Pacer4Life.”
On Friday night at Golden 1 Center, third-seeded Grant soaked in its Sac-Joaquin Section Division II repeat, a 65-58 victory over No. 8-seeded Granite Bay, only it has to rate as the most unusual repeat in the history of repeating.
There were no tournaments last year for any prep sports in California, the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 hit Grant coach Deonard Wilson hard. He was hospitalized with the virus and wondered as he lay in a hospital warehouse — the hospital had no more available rooms — if he’d survive it. Sadly, his mother, Mattie, and sister Priscilla, did not survive their bouts with COVID-19.
So yes, this championship means a great deal to the Pacers, the coaches, the teachers, the alums — anyone who has roots in Del Paso Heights. Grant students chanted, “Paaaacers!” as the game wore down, and the school’s nationally recognized drumline provided a nice backdrop, a campus and its region united as one. For months, the Grant gym hosted a free vaccination clinic on Saturdays; that same gym is also the scene of a welcome return to some form of normalcy.
“One thing about this community,” an emotional Wilson said afterward, “is we’re family, especially going through a pandemic. We talk about mental health in general, how it affects our kids. This group, we decided to have school on our own. We showed up every day to have school. That was the only sense of normalcy we had. We didn’t practice, but we were together. This is a community school.”
Wilson added, “I lost my mom and my sister. My tears were not necessarily joy but missing mom. Our community was the hardest hit by COVID. We buried community members last week. We need this win because we had so much loss.”
Grant (25-3) is at its best when it defends with purpose, and it did against a well-coached, balanced Grizzlies team that was in its first section basketball final. The effort starts with senior guard Rishod Brown, who overcame a slow start to finish strong. He scored a game-high 19 points. Luca Davis had 16, Jordan Bobo 10, Josh Tignor eight, Jayson Matthews seven and Darnell Hunter five.
Wilson spoke of Brown like a son, a good kid who can irk the coach, but then inspires him with leadership and desire.
“Just this week, our principal (Darris Hinson) calls (Brown) and talk about his maturity and how much he’s changed and how much he’s been a leader,” Wilson said. “What does he mean for us? He means everything.”
Brown is long and wiry, tireless and entertaining. He can hit 3-pointers, handle the ball, make zip passes and play above the rim. His late dunk sealed it and ignited Grant’s fan base. Brown thanked his coaches, pointing them out after the game, as people who have given him structure.
“I give them credit,” he said. “They push me. They make sure we doing what we do. They spend all that time with us. I appreciate them.”
Brown said Grant student-athletes have an obligation to show the next generation of Pacers what it means to compete like a champion.
“We want to set an example,” he said. “Be better than us. Not as good. Better.”
Grant and Granite Bay will advance to the Northern California regionals that start Tuesday.
Granite Bay (19-13) tied for third in the Sierra Foothill League but took this bracket by storm. St. Mary’s of Stockton stunned 27-0 Ponderosa, the top seed, in a playoff opener, and then Granite Bay wiped out St. Mary’s by 20, and then beat second-seeded Whitney by four in a semifinal.
The Grizzlies were led against Grant by T.J. Maveety’s 15, Zaid Sharif’s 13, Trevor Alfstat’s 12 and Yaqub Mir’s nine.
This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 4:06 AM.