The defending Sonoma County League champion Flying Tigers came agonizingly close to putting another notch on their belt for the winter campaign, winning one of two games in the league tournament to settle for second place.
The first-place Tigers began the SCL tourney on Feb. 18, with a 43-40 overtime victory over fourth-seeded Healdsburg, but dropped a 27-26 heartbreaker to Petaluma in Saturday’s title game.
On Sunday, Analy (20-8) garnered plenty of respect at the North Coast Section seeding meeting, landing the number eight seed in the Division-3 playoff tournament, which starts this week.
At press time the Tigers were preparing for a Tuesday, Feb. 23 opening round home date against ninth ranked Encinal. Should Analy win, it will travel to face number-one seeded Moreau Catholic on Friday, Feb. 26 (7 p.m.).
“We got exactly what I thought we would get and deserve—the eight seed and a home game for being league champs,” Analy coach Brett Page said. “It is what it is for us up here in the north country. We don’t always get the respect but then again we have to win the big games.”
The complete list of NCS Division-3 teams in seeding order is; Moreau Catholic, Albany, Miramonte, Drake, Bishop O’Dowd, San Marin, Campolindo, Analy, Encinal, Piner, Tamalpais, and Hercules.
Tigers take second
The Tigers played host to Healdsburg in the SCL playoff opener on Feb. 18, getting off to a slow start offensively to trail 12-7 at the end of one. Healdsburg led 19-17 at the half.
Defense continued to dictate the tempo in the third quarter, neither team did much offensively in the third quarter, as Healdsburg clung to a 28-23 advantage after three.
The Tigers, behind an eight-point surge from sharp-shooting guard Nick Fujii, got it going in the final period, chipping away at the deficit to force overtime knotted at 35-apiece.
Healdsburg held a 40-39 edge with 30 seconds remaining, but the Tigers got a pair of clutch free throws from Travis Holmes and Jordan Armstrong in the waning seconds to lift their team to a 43-40 win.
“It might have been that Healdsburg played zone and we settled for shooting the long shot and had no rebounding,” Page noted. “It took us most of the game to figure out how to attack the zone and get good shots. Once we did, we started scoring.”
Top scorers for Analy included Fujii (16 points, 2 rebounds), Holmes (9 points, 5 boards, 10 assists), 2 steals), Armstrong (6 points, 11 rebounds), Zach Binsfeld (4 points) and two points each from David Codoni, Spencer Vogel and Aidan Vermuelen.
Defense took center stage in Saturday’s SCL tourney title game at Santa Rosa Junior College, as the Tigers took on a hungry second-seeded Petaluma squad.
In a game that offense took a holiday, both teams were held to single digits in scoring in all four quarters. The Trojans led 14-12 lead at the half and 23-18 after three quarters before the Tigers made things interesting with a late surge. Trailing by one in their final possession, Analy had a chance at the win but a lay-up rimmed out as time expired to give Petaluma a 27-26 victory.
“It was an interesting game and one that I think was filled with great effort, but neither team could score, Page said. “Both offenses had trouble against the other team’s defense. It’s difficult to hold a team to 27 points, and when you do you expect to win.”
Armstrong led the Tigers with eight points and 18 rebounds, while Codoni chipped in five points for Analy.
