Prep boys’ basketball: Elk Grove wins state championship as the Herd pulls together
The bear hugs were sweaty yet glorious.
One by one, Elk Grove High School players grabbed onto their beloved head coach for a long, firm embrace, like long-lost family reuniting, the school’s spirited student rooting section offering chants of “Ellllk Grooove” behind them Saturday at Golden 1 Center. The coach, Dustin Monday, couldn’t hold back the tears and didn’t even try.
What’s a jubilant championship moment without grown men and growing lads sharing emotions in their finest athletic moment? Monday’s “crazy ride” for the Thundering Herd made its final stop the most meaningful and memorable one. The star players, none more continuously superb as senior guard Ameere Brittion, did their thing in the state Division II championship bout, and the role players did masterful role-player things. It added up to a 62-56 victory over Foothill of Santa Ana and a place in campus and regional history.
“It’s historic, unprecedented,” Monday said of the achievement. “So much pride. ... So much to be proud of.”
The win was Elk Grove’s first CIF state championship and just the second for a Sacramento-area boys’ D-II program in the 40-year history of the event. Oak Ridge beat Mater Dei of Orange County for D-II state honors in 2005. None of which is to suggest that Elk Grove hasn’t played good basketball over the decades. It has, including winning a Sac-Joaquin Section Division I championship in 1995, which came 20 years after Bill Cartwright led a section-championship repeat for the Herd.
A 7-foot center and the nation’s top recruit in 1975, Cartwright was so spectacular as a prep All-American that CIF officials decided to get the ball rolling to create a state championship. It finally happened in 1981.
Elk Grove is a tight team, like brothers with Monday the demanding, loud and sometimes glowering figure. But the mutual admiration and appreciation was clear. The kids love the coach and he the kids.
“You have to love them to do this, otherwise what’s the point of coaching, right?” Monday said. “Just a special group. ... We spend so much time together, more than our own families.”
Britton again led the charge with his tireless efforts. The senior guard scored 20 points, either off his explosive first step, on runners or power layups, and he had seven rebounds and three assists. DaJon “Money” Lott was again a big presence inside at 6-foot-9, with a shock of high hair that makes him a 7-footer. He had six points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots. Britton and Lott were the Elk Grove anchors as four-year starters.
Monday was emotional in describing how important Britton has been to the team as a player, a leader, a student and a campus figure.
“The rising tide raises all ships,” the coach said, adding that Britton’s sheer will makes him the “head of this monster.”
For all the star power of Britton and Lott, the true measure of this team is the sum of all parts. It took all of them to get this done, to survive this playoff grind, one in which Elk Grove went 7-1 in the postseason. Senior guard Karlos Zepeda scored 17 points and helped salt it away with seven made free throws in the final 1:59. He was a three-year starter, pals with Britton, Lott and others on the roster since the third grade. Senior guard Jordan Hess had 14, fearlessly scoring 3-pointers or runners. Senior forwards Isaiah King and Grant Golonka combined for five points, six rebounds and six assists. The bench players were engaged and into it.
Even when Britton fouled out with 56 seconds to play, with his rooting section chanting, “MVP! MVP!”, the Herd never broke stride. This has happened before in playoff games when Britton fouled out and his mates closed the deal.
“It was agonizing,” Britton said of sitting on the bench for the final frantic seconds. “I knew they could do it (without me).”
A Sac-Joaquin Section semifinal loss in overtime to Grant didn’t end the season for Elk Grove last month. It served to motivate the Thundering Herd all the more. The players and coaches expected a championship run a year ago but there was no postseaason due to the pandemic, so this was their season, their chance. Elk Grove was placed in the CIF Northern California Regional as the No. 1 seed, and then backed it up with four intense home victories. The Thundering Herd finished 28-6.
“We knew we could do something special,” Zepeda said. “I knew we were capable.”
So now, at long last, coach Monday can exhale and even sleep in a bit. He’s Thundering Herd to the core, just like his players, having played basketball at the school. On Saturday after the game, he was flanked by his young sons Jackson and Beau, and he expressed gratitude to wife Lindsay for allowing him to spend time away from the family doing what he so very much enjoys. And Elk Grove showed that an old public school could not only hang tough with private-school heavies in the postseason, they can topple them.
“That’s how public schools compete,” Monday said. “Keep them together.”
This story was originally published March 13, 2022 at 6:00 AM.