Five years after 0-27 season, Casa Roble basketball brings CIF section crown to Orangevale
The Casa Roble Rams are upstarts no more in high tops Orangevale, where high school sports remain a sparkling example of achievement in recent years. They have formally arrived on the Northern California boys basketball landscape.
Far removed from the dreary days of going a combined 2-52 over two lost seasons, 2018-19 and 2019-20, Casa Roble rejoiced in its breakthrough program moment Thursday afternoon at Golden 1 Center.
The Rams held off Golden Empire League rival and top-seeded Natomas 70-68 to win their first CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championship, taking Division IV honors, and the 59-year-old San Juan Unified School District campus celebrated its third major team section championship since 2024.
The football team in 2023 and the baseball team last spring also won section banners. Football coach Chris Horner soaked in the latest Rams conquest and cheered throughout when he wasn’t agonizing over Natomas’ late push. Nearby, Casa Roble athletic director Aaron Marlette beamed like a proud program papa. The Casa Roble cheer squad also recently won a national championship.
“All I can say is, ‘Wow!’” Rams basketball coach Nathan Gilbert said. “That’s why we coach.”
The stars for Casa Roble come in the form of senior guard Benny Ambriz and junior wing Moses Oginni, though the difference-maker Thursday was the ever-steady Mason Pearcy. The 6-foot-4 junior guard/wing had a game-high 21 points, hitting inside and outside, and the kid with high bouncy hair sealed the school’s greatest basketball moment with a steal on the final play as Natomas sought to tie or win it with a 3-pointer.
Ambriz scored 17 points and had seven rebounds and four assists. Oginni scored 13 and pulled down six rebounds. The support came from Ace Villegas, Jared Alexander, Anthony Maher, Preston Scott and Josh Lane. Each of them scored points and hustled to make plays as the Rams moved to 28-4 with their 11th consecutive victory.
Casa Roble made 21 of 30 free throws while Natomas made just 11 of 28, but the Nighthawks can indeed shoot. Two late 3-pointers by Alfred Wilkins kept it tight in the closing moment. He had 16 points, Aeron Wallace scored 11 and Manno Jenkins 16 to go with eight assists.
The teams split league meetings, including Casa Roble downing Natomas 56-54 on Feb. 11. Earlier in the season, Natomas rolled the Rams, 73-57. Casa Roble grew from there, gaining confidence and victories.
Coach invited Rams challenge
The leaders of the pack are two coaches in Gilbert and top assistant Jason Taylor, who said after the game that, “We’re not done,” as the Rams advance to the CIF Northern California rounds that start Tuesday at home sites.
A decades-long electrician, Gilbert is in his fourth season heading the program after leading the Rams freshmen. He helped the varsity program while working as the freshman coach, and he winced at the view of those long seasons. Gilbert appreciates the value of the student-athlete experience, and he coaches like it, a man in constant motion.
He grew up and played prep sports in Coleville, a town of fewer than 400 people located about halfway between Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Lakes near the Nevada border. Gilbert invited the challenge of turning the Rams varsity basketball fortunes around, lowlighted by an 0-27 showing in 2019-20 as coaches came and went, but he could see from football home games that sports are a thing in Orangevale.
“There was never any continuity, a rotation of coaches, and these guys deserved better,” Gilbert said. “I couldn’t have done it without my coaches, like Jason, and my wife, Renee, especially.”
He added, “Benny was the first of our time to come up to varsity as a freshman, and we needed him. He’s our first 1,000-point career scorer. Moses has been with us on varsity since he was a freshman, We needed their help.”
The climb out of the rubble included going 10-18 in Gilbert’s first season in 2021-22, followed by seasons of 22-8 and winning a league crown and 22-7 last season. This certainly appears to be the school’s finest basketball team, topping the Norm Ryan-coached teams of the 1980s that reached section semifinal rounds at Arco Arena, where the Sacramento Kings played before switching to Golden 1.
Orangevale — known as “OV” by students and alums — has a population of more than 35,000, much larger than Gilbert’s home town. But there’s a similar bond between student-athletes and the community.
“Our sports teams were the heart and passion, and the whole school and town would shut down for our games,” Gilbert said. “I wanted these kids to have that kind of special moment. We had a great send off from the school today, fans and parents. The OV is real. It reminds me of home, a tight community.”
So much so that the desired location to celebrate Thursday night was to rush the Dairy Queen in Orangevale.
Ambriz, the senior floor leader, said his team “worked hard for this.” Pearcy, who sealed the game, said he felt the support from family, friends, teachers and more when on the free throw line or playing defense.
“I had to focus up,” he said. “All those people were cheering for us.”
Gilbert in the postgame media session told his team, “That was fun, tough, and you guys battled. So proud of all of you.”
The CIF will announce NorCal brackets Sunday afternoon. Natomas (24-8) also advances, and the team led by 2024 Sacramento Bee Coach of the Year Brian McKenzie reminded his team that the Nighthawks made a run last season in the NorCal rounds.
This story was originally published February 27, 2025 at 7:15 PM.