Friday's Playoffs: Sheldon Wins, EG, Bradshaw, CRC lose

About the only thing that didn't go well Friday night at Sheldon High School was that one of the referees didn't like how close to the basketball court the students were standing. It took a moment for school principal Paula Duncan to talk to the boys standing on court level cheering on their Huskies' boys basketball team.

Moments after the excited crowd was settled down by Ms. Duncan the rout was back underway. Sheldon lit up the scoreboard often defeating Granite Bay, 104-59, in a Sac-Joaquin Section Division I second round game.

Friday's Area Scoreboard

Basketball

Sheldon 104, Granite Bay 59 

Antelope 41, Elk Grove 38

Mariposa 62, Bradshaw Christian 58

Contra Costa College 84, Cosumnes River 77 

Boys' Volleyball 

Elk Grove def. Bella Vista, 25-14, 25-16, 25-20

Girls' Soccer  

Folsom 1, Elk Grove 0

Cosumnes Oaks 2, Folsom 1

Cosumnes Oaks 2, Elk Grove 0  

The third-seeded Huskies started the game scoring the first 15 points and the No. 6 Grizzlies didn't recover. Sheldon scored 33 points in the first quarter while holding Granite Bay to only ten.

Huskies' head coach Joey Rollings said after a lackluster playoff opener two nights prior against Kennedy, he was quite pleased with Friday's turnaround.

"We came out flat and didn't shoot well, had eight days off before we played Kennedy," Rollings explained. "So, we worked on being tougher defensively, rebounding because we kind of got lazy at that. I think that helped us. We started out with pressure to get everybody going, attack and hit the shots when we needed to."

Matt Manning and Isaiah Brooks each scored 21 points in the Sheldon win. Manning echoed his coaches sentiments over the improved play Friday.

"I felt good," Manning said. "I felt like our ball movement was way better tonight. We were pushing the ball up the court and we were really clicking."

"We were sharing the ball, just sharing the ball," Brooks said. "We keep playing higher, higher and higher."

The Huskies ball-hawking on defense resulted in numerous fast-break opportunities and multiple layups, particularly in the third quarter when Sheldon stretched a 20-point halftime advantage (48-38) out to 33 points (75-42). The Huskies ended the third period on a 14-0 run.

Even in the fourth quarter when Rollings put in underclassmen for their first taste of varsity basketball, impressive shots and lay-ups abounded.

Impressive, too,  was the play of Drew Cobb. He often went to the low post against the Grizzlies, who were playing without their 6-8 center Darren Nelson, and worked for several short jumpers.

"Drew was on and when he's on it spurs us on," Rollings said. "He's a point guard, but we play him down low because we have a couple guys shorter than him. So when he's on bigger guys he makes them work harder cause he's so quick."

Cobb ended up with 18 points. Elijah Duplechan scored 14 points and Devin Greene had 11 points.

The Huskies next challenge will be Modesto Christian, Wednesday in the Div. I semi-finals at Sleep Train Arena.

"They've got a big kid at 6-9 in the middle and big guards, 6-3, 6-4, who are athletic," Rollings said. "We played them a couple times during the summer and it was two-points (margin) both times. It's going to be a good semi-finals."