Buena High boys basketball team's state title bid stopped by Oakland in Sacramento

SACRAMENTO — Ventura County’s longest boys basketball season ended with a long drive and even longer faces.

Senior forward Zane Carter scored a team-high 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds, but Buena High fell to Oakland High, 59-43, on Friday in the CIF-State Division III state championship game at the Golden 1 Center.

The first Ventura County public school to win a CIF-State Southern California regional finishes its season 31-6.

Its 37 games are the most played by a boys basketball team in Ventura County history.

“I think this is something we’ll always remember,” Buena head coach Matt Colton said. “Just the experience was amazing.”

Oakland (27-8) scored the first nine points of the game and the first 10 points of the second half. Buena could not recover from the two flurries, which more than accounted for the 16-point final margin.

“We unfortunately took the wrong day to kind of go cold offensively,” Colton said. “But their speed definitely affected us. … We had a couple bumpy patches.”

Senior guard Money Williams lived up to his name, scoring 23 points, pulled down nine rebounds and grabbing four steals to lead Oakland, whose victory was celebrated on social media by famous alum and Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard.

“They did some good things and we did some things that were abnormal for us, I would say,” Colton said. “Film is not always the best judge of speed.”

The Bulldogs are left to console themselves with a historic season, which included a school record for wins in a single season and the memory of an epic triple-overtime win over Culver City in Tuesday’s regional final.

That allowed Buena to end Ventura County’s 24-year drought without a boys basketball state finalist, which stretched back to Santa Clara’s third Division V crown in Lou Cvijanovich’s final game as head coach in 1999.

“We’re pretty much one of the best teams that’s ever played in Ventura County,” Carter said.

Buena shot 32% as a team, including 1 of 17 from 3-point land, and turned the ball over 23 times on Friday.

“I wasn’t ready for the speed of those guys, just being picked up full court,” said guard Colin Guenther. “That was a good friggin’ team and we were unable to handle the pressure like we had in the past.”

The long drive, arena setting, bigger court and slippery ball may have all contributed to the Bulldogs’ performance.

But, at least primarily, the credit goes to Oakland’s speed and quickness, which applied a level of defensive pressure Buena could not withstand.

“They just came out ready to go and they were defending the heck out of us,” senior guard Daniel Ortiz said. “Credit to them, they beat us.”

Buena turned the ball over 11 times in the first seven minutes, falling behind 9-0 before Carter finished a pick-and-roll feed from Guenther for the Bulldogs’ first points 3:36 into the game.

“That wasn’t us,” Colton said. “We came out kind of afraid and that’s never been us. How many times did we just not catch the ball? Some of them were completely unforced. … And then it just ended up snowballing.”

Luke Ortiz’s corner 3-pointer pulled Buena within 14-7 late in the first quarter and it had several chances to get within four points in the second quarter.

Instead, Oakland built a 23-13 halftime lead with a late flurry, then scored the first 10 points of the second half to take a 33-13 stranglehold.

“I don’t feel we shot near as well as we normally do,” Colton said. “The arena had a big effect. I think the speed (of Oakland) had an effect, too. I think it was a combination of both, in my opinion.”

Guenther fouled out with 3:47 to play. Carter picked his fifth foul soon after, having scored more than half of what was then Buena’s 35 points.

“He’s definitely a special athlete,” Colton said of Carter. “He’s been special on the football field. He’s been special off the field. … I’ll take him in a battle any day. I know they were trying to do somethings to try to take him away. Their pressure limited us, at times, (from) getting it inside to him.”

Sophomore Josh Ullegue was helped off the court with an ankle injury in the final minutes.

Colton’s childhood friend, Jason Plum flew, into Sacramento with his young son to surprise his former Buena classmate.

The experience, which left Colton emotional before Buena left its hotel for the game, fit into the head coach’s postgame message to his players.

“I’ve been telling them about the bigger picture,” Colton said. “These moments are bigger (than the result). This win or loss doesn’t matter. Who they are matters and who we’ve been matters.”

Carter and Guenther, seniors who have led Buena to a football sectional final and basketball state final in their exceptional careers, touched on the theme after the game.

Carter turned to Guenther on the podium and said, “Stay in touch forever, bro.”

“It didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but friendships … are going to last way longer than one game and one season,” Guenther said.

Joe Curley is a staff writer for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcspreps on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Buena's state championship bid stopped by Oakland in Sacramento