Boys Top 20: Sweet scorer helps Union Mine ‘Prove Them Wrong’ while Toure leads West Park
To watch this team in warm-ups, no one initially makes you stop and stare.
Then they play the game, a group of guys who grew up together playing ball and dreaming of doing big things in high school. If there is a star for the upstart Union Mine Diamondbacks, it’s the guy with the sweetest name.
Nate Sweet is the senior guard whose 25.9 points-per-game scoring average has fueled his team to the best start in program history. The school opened in El Dorado County in 1999 and has fielded some stellar teams, but none that got off to a 21-2 start like this. Union Mine checks off all the boxes on how to compete. They share the ball, they defend, and they back each other, right on down to the last man on the bench.
Sweet is hardly a one-man show, nor is he a gunner. He scores within the flow of the game with a variety of shots. He is a crafty scorer and passer whose teammates are similarly unselfish and defensive minded. Senior guard Ethan Gines doesn’t just play the game. He feels the game, finding open players on the run or in halfcourt sets. His 9.7 assists lead the state.
The Diamondbacks’ leading rebounder is a football star in 6-foot-3 post Isaac Zmerzlikar, who muscles in for 15.5 points and 12.4 rebounds per game. Senior guard Hayden Otte scores 10.5 points per game and senior guard Damion Schade is a fierce defender, moving his feet to cut off lanes and anticipating passes. Schade is proof that size is relative in being a stopper. He’s 5-9 and backs down from no challenges.
All of this from a team that returned only Sweet from the starting lineup of a 25-7 squad that won the Sierra Valley Conference crown last season. There were no championship expectations from this program outside of campus.
So it’s no wonder the players wear shirts that read “Prove Them Wrong.”
“That’s our motto because a lot of people expected us to fall off this season,” Diamondbacks coach Ryan Williams said. “I’m very pleased with how we’ve played. We make the hustle plays. The guys love to get after it. We’re a very well balanced team. I’m pretty lucky as a coach.”
A fortunate coach with a Sweet spot shooter. Sweet averaged 8.8 points as a junior and kept on working on his game in the spring, summer and fall.
“He’s come into his own,” Williams said. “He’s had a great season. They all have. We have to keep it going.”
Union Mine got off to a 3-0 start, then put together a 13-game winning streak before losing 59-57 to Vacaville. The current winning streak is now up to five heading into Tuesday’s home game against Liberty Ranch.
Union Mine is 10-0 on the road and expects to make another run at a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV championship.
Tall, talented Tallis Toure
West Park of Roseville has a team and it has a player in 6-10 senior Tallis Toure, who has been on a tear.
Days after dropping in 30 points in a 51-49 win over Ponderosa, Toure went for 25 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots in a memorable effort Jan. 19 in Auburn.
The 61-49 victory over No. 13 Placer was West Park’s first in famed Earl Crabbe Gym and left the Panthers alone in first place in the Foothill Valley League. West Park entered The Bee’s Top 20 for the first time at No. 20.
Toure is a rising-fast recruit with Sacramento State recently offering him a scholarship. West Park is 15-6 overall and 4-0 in FVL play entering Wednesday’s home game against Lincoln. West Park is 7-1 at home.
Ambriz approaches 1,000 for Casa Roble
One of the unsung scorers in Northern California competes in Orangevale.
Benny Ambriz, a 6-2 junior guard, is averaging 24.2 points while leading his team by making nearly 60% of his shots. He enters the weekend closing in fast on the 1,000-point career milestone in three varsity seasons with a season to go, needing 12 points to do so.
Ambriz opened the season with a 37-point game against Foothill. His lowest output was nine points against Las Plumas on Dec. 5, but Casa Roble won 72-62.
Casa Roble is 17-5 overall and 6-0 in the Golden Empire League. The Rams have a nine-game winning streak entering Tuesday’s game at Rio Linda.
Tall at Twelve Bridges
Twelve Bridges of Lincoln entered the week at 17-4 and 7-0 in the Pioneer Valley League, thanks in large part to the big guys on the roster in 6-6 senior James Sweet and 6-7 senior Jacob Gilchrist.
They’re not just tall, but they are skilled. In a 76-58 win over Center, Gilchrist scored 30 points, including making three 3-pointers. Sweet went for 18.
Gilchrist has signed a scholarship package with UC Davis. Sweet is still on the market. Twelve Bridges entered the week with an eight-game winning streak under Robert Ash, a longtime Lincoln Zebras coach who started the Twelve Bridges program. Twelve Bridges will graduate its first senior class this spring.
THE BEE’S TOP 20
Boys
Records entering Tuesday
1. Rocklin (23-0)
2. Monterey Trail (18-2)
3. Sacramento (18-4)
4. Capital Christian (14-7)
5. Sheldon (13-8)
6. Jesuit (14-7)
7. Frankin (18-4)
8. Inderkum (14-6)
9. Del Oro (17-6)
10. Folsom (14-8)
11. Whitney (14-9)
12. Woodcreek (16-5)
13. Placer (18-2)
14. Burbank (16-6)
15. Grant (12-8)
16. Laguna Creek (13-9)
17. Union Mine (21-2)
18. Oak Ridge (13-9)
19. Wood (12-9)
20. West Park (15-6)
Bubble: Antelope (11-10), Christian Brothers (12-10), Cosumnes Oaks (12-9), Kennedy (13-9), Lincoln (15-7), Rio Americano (11-8), Twelve Bridges (17-4), Vacaville (12-7), West Campus (15-4), Western Sierra (17-2).
This story was originally published January 24, 2024 at 5:00 AM.