Jesuit’s ‘glue guy’ wins game with late putback in playoff opener against Monterey Trail
Of course it was Reid Jones there at the end.
The relentless, tireless senior guard for Jesuit High School has a knack for slithering or muscling inside for buckets and finding a way to contribute to a team that includes his best friend, the incomparably talented and skilled Andrej Stojakovic.
Stojakovic did his thing against an athletic and determined Monterey Trail bunch Wednesday night in a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoff opener, scoring 17 points on a variety of crowd-pleasing jumpers, long shots, drives and dunks. But it was Jones who saved the day and extended a season of promise.
His last-second putback off a 3-point attempt by Cole Epperson gave the No. 4-seeded Marauders a stirring 67-65 victory over upstart No. 13 Monterey Trail in front of a lively crowd at Jesuit. This included the spirited student section that exhaled after such a brutal opening draw, and the coaches who knew that Monterey Trail was a misleading 15-13 coming in, having tied Grant and Laguna Creek for the Metro League championship.
Back and forth these teams went, but the guy with the game winner did what he was supposed to do — crash the boards.
“Right guy at the right spot,” Stojakovic said of his pal, who stood next to him in the tunnel just outside the gym, bearing a wide grin. “I tell our assistant coaches all the time that every great team needs a glue guy. He’s the best glue guy in California.”
The glue guy is a 6-foot-3 grinder who can handle the ball, shoot it, pass it and defend. He inspires his teammates and coaches with his resolve, having missed a lot of games in his early Jesuit career with injuries. This was his first playoff victory, having missed last season’s postseason run with a bum knee.
“It was all a blur,” Jones said of the final, frantic seconds in a meeting of conference champions who came in highly ranked by The Bee, Jesuit at No. 3 and Monterey Trail at No. 6. “That was a lot of fun. I didn’t want my first playoff game to be my last.”
Jones is so into this sport and this season that he also defines fun as guarding Stojakovic in practice. Jones gives every ounce of effort in an attempt to slow down the 6-7 Stanford-bound scoring marvel, and he’ll body him, chase him and make him work.
“It makes it a lot easier for me to guard players on other teams after guarding Andrej in practice,” Jones said. “There’s just no other Andrej out there.”
Jesuit has the star power in Stojakovic, whose final high school game will be in the prestigious McDonald’s All-American game next month in Houston. But this is no one-man show. Jesuit kept on rolling when Stojakovic missed the bulk of the Delta League season with an ankle injury.
And the supporting cast is a nightmare for opponents, starting with a lineup of 3-point shooters. There is the smooth ball handling and passing of junior point guard Kevin Haupt, also an ace shooter who had nine points and five assists. Ahjani Lewis is a versatile effort guy with skills. The 6-2 junior guard had 10 points. Epperson, a 6-8 junior who scores on 3s and spin moves, had nine points and 10 rebounds. Owen Ubaldo, a 6-4 senior, muscled in for eight points.
Monterey Trail coach Robert Fields was impressed with the entire Jesuit package.
“Jesuit’s extremely talented, disciplined, a lot of guys, and Tim Kelly does a great job,” the coach said.
Kelly is the Jesuit coach. He and Fields spoke before the game, during warmups, about how brutal this D-I field must be if this was an opening-round showdown. Monterey Trail has championship talent but fell to the 13 seed after losing the coin flip to decide the pecking order of the Metro winners for the D-I seedings, going from as high as a No. 7 seed all the way to 13 on the bad bounce of a coin.
“That’s not a 13 seed,” Kelly said of Monterey Trail. “They are a really good team. They had me nervous all week long about this. I knew we were walking into a buzz saw, and coach Fields does a great job with them.”
The coach added, “We’ve had different guys step up all year. I think we’ve got four guys averaging double figures. We’ve been through injuries. We’ve been through different lineups. We’ve been through a lot of stuff. We’ve had five different guys score 20 points at one point this season. So they’re really good when they play together.”
Kelly was especially pleased for Jones, knowing how hard his anchor worked to get back on the court after a knee injury stalled him.
“I don’t know if anyone appreciates tonight as much as Reid Jones,” Kelly said.
Kentrell Kelly was tasked with guarding Stojakovic, an assignment the 6-7 junior invited. He made Stojakovic work for his shots, but there is only so much one can do against such a gifted scorer who feels the game so well. Kelly led the Mustangs with 20 points in a terrific all-around game. Damarion Vann-Kelly, a 6-2 sophomore guard, had 13 for Monterey Trail, and 6-5 junior forward Brandon Gibson had 11.
The senior leader of this group, Varick Lewis, had 12 points in his Mustangs finale. He is quite possibly the best player in program history, a 6-4 guard headed to Long Beach State on scholarship. Behind Lewis and coach Fields, the Mustangs won the program’s first league championship for the Elk Grove Unified School District school that opened in 2004. A host of players will return next season.
“This can be a launching pad for us,” Fields said. “I feel for our seniors, especially Varick Lewis. People think he’s selfish and can’t win. None of that is true. He’s been a great player for us. It was Jesuit’s night.”
Jesuit on Friday hosts No. 5-seeded Capital Christian in a quarterfinal. Capital Christian defeated No. 12 Downey of Modesto 68-53 in an opener.
Division I
Wednesday’s first-round games
No. 1 Folsom 82, No. 16 Pitman 40
No. 8 Weston Ranch 63, No. 9 Grant 55
No. 5 Capital Christian 68, No. 12 Downey 53
No. 3 Modesto Christian 82, No. 14 Oak Ridge 44
No. 6 Lincoln-Stockton 66, No. 11 Sheldon 54
No. 7 Laguna Creek 55, No. 10 Edison 45
Friday’s quarterfinals
Weston Ranch at Folsom
Capital Christian at Jesuit
Lincoln at Modesto Christian
Laguna Creek at Inderkum
This story was originally published February 16, 2023 at 8:57 AM.