Montgomery boys come up short in Brett Callan basketball tournament title game

The Montgomery boys basketball team didn't have good shooting rhythm on Saturday night in the final of the Brett Callan Memorial Tournament at Casa Grande High School, and it was the deciding factor in the Vikings' 50-46 loss to Tamalpais for the title.

Without any last-second magic, the Vikings (7-3) finished in second place at the 11th annual tournament behind the Red Tailed Hawks (5-3) of Mill Valley.

“We just didn't shoot the ball well tonight. I thought we lost our composure a little bit and we didn't play well,” Montgomery coach Zac Tiedeman said. “We scrapped and played hard but didn't execute. We didn't play sound.”

Montgomery trailed 37-30 after three quarters and narrowed the Tamalpais lead to 48-46 with 0:50 to play, but a potential tying bucket by the Vikings rimmed in and out. Tamalpais' Jack Duboff (5 of 6 on free throws in the fourth quarter) hit two free throws in the waning seconds to ice the victory.

“Tamalpais has some nice ball-handlers at the guard position and they did a good job defensively. Their big guys can shoot,” Tiedeman said. “It was definitely a winnable game but we just didn't get it done.”

Montgomery was led by Alex Soria with 15 points. Soria and teammate Evan Poulsen were named to the all-tournament team.

The Red Tailed Hawks were led by Josh Love with 13 points. Tournament MVP Jason Iles chipped in 12 points.

CARDINAL NEWMAN 65, ANALY 48

The Cardinals (5-1) won the third-place game against the Tigers (7-3) in impressive fashion, bouncing back from a tough loss on Friday night to rival Montgomery.

“After a disappointing loss to Monty, to turn around within 24 hours and beat a team like Analy, it shows that our team has a lot of character,” Cardinal Newman coach Tom Bonfigli said. “We played our best quarter of the season in the first quarter” - which ended with a 21-9 Cardinals advantage.

The stat line was a strange one for the Cardinals - three high-scoring quarters with a scoring drought in the other. Cardinal Newman scored 61 points on 65 percent shooting in the first, third and fourth quarters while in the second quarter the Cardinals slumped to score only 4 points on a dismal 1-for-17 shooting.

“In the second quarter our shots weren't falling,” Bonfigli said. “Other than the second quarter, we shot the ball really well.

Analy only trailed 25-21 at halftime, but Cardinal Newman outscored the Tigers 40-27 in the second half.

“Analy made one run at us in the second half but they had to foul us and we made our free throws,” Bonfigli said. “We had good energy tonight and our kids were really focused.”

The Cardinals were led by Cody Baker with 17 points and Nathan Capurro with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Baker and teammate Gavin Dove were both named to the all-tournament team.

The Tigers were guided by Jordan Armstrong with 17 points and 8 boards and by Aiden Toner-Rogers with 15 points. Armstrong was named to the all-tournament squad.

CASA GRANDE 37, PETALUMA 34

The host Gauchos (3-6) salvaged a win in their third game of the tournament, defeating the crosstown rival Trojans (5-5) in the consolation bracket. Casa Grande fought back from an early 9-point deficit to ring up the victory.

“It came down to the wire,” Casa Grande coach Jake Lee said. “Our guys followed the game plan to a tee. We wanted to go aggressively to the rim and get to the free-throw line.”

Vikram Singh led the Gauchos, scoring all 10 of his points in the decisive third quarter when Casa Grande outscored Petaluma 15-4. The Gauchos did not score from the field in the fourth quarter as they were outscored 12-7. Casa Grande held on to win on the strength of Garrett Siebels' 6-of-6 free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter.

Ian Cerutti was the sole selection to the all-tournament team from the Gauchos.

“Cerutti was really aggressive tonight and had a fantastic game for us,” Lee said.

Petaluma was led by Joey Potts and Jack Anderson, each with 8 points. The Trojans, the only winless team in the tournament, did not have an all-tournament team selection.

MIRAMONTE 87, GEORGE WASHINGTON 45

The defending tournament champion Matadors (6-2) of Orinda defeated the Eagles (3-8) of San Francisco in a consolation bracket game.

Charlie Hocking led Miramonte with 30 points and 10 rebounds. Jackie Luong led George Washington with 21 points.