Analy hosts #14 Alhambra in playoff opener
The Analy Flying Tigers are peaking at exactly the right time this month, following a perfect 12-0 Sonoma County League season with a clean sweep over Piner (67-43) and Petaluma (58-41) to capture the SCL Playoff Tournament championship on Saturday.
On Feb. 19, the Tigers (23-5) were handsomely rewarded with the third seed in the 14-team North Coast Section Division 3 playoff tourney, drawing 14th seeded visiting Alhambra (10-16) in the playoff opener on Tuesday, Feb. 21 (7 p.m.). Should Analy win as expected, it will advance to host the survivor of the Miramonte-Encinal game in the quarterfinals on Friday, Feb. 24 (7 p.m.).
The list of NCS Division 3 teams in seeding order is Salesian, Campolindo, Analy, San Marin, Drake, Miramonte, Hercules, Albany, Kennedy, Piner, Encinal, Hayward, Sonoma Valley and Alhambra.
“We’ve had undefeated teams (in the past) but I remember feeling like in the second half of league and into the playoffs we were struggling,” Analy coach Brett Page said. “This season my sense is that we’ve gotten stronger in the second half and put some distance between us and our competition.”
Tigers capture SCL tourney
It was all Analy in the SCL tourney opener against fourth-seeded visiting Piner on Feb. 15, a team that had played the Tigers tough in a pair of regular season games this year. Analy set the tone with a 10-5 run out of the gate before racing to a 29-16 cushion at the half. The Tigers iced the contest with another 18-7 surge in the third quarter on their way to a 67-43 rout.
Senior Aidan Toner-Rodgers paced the attack with 20 points (5 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals), while other top scorers included Dom Tripodi (19 points, 1 rebound, 2 steals), Spencer Vogel (10 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, 4 steals), Jack Newman (5 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals), Jordan Armstrong (4 points, 10 rebounds, 5 blocks), Zach Binsfeld (3 points, 2 rebounds), Quinn Vermuelen (2 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal), Kevin Eling (2 points) and Shaviv Hoffman (2 points).
The Tigers got off to a slow start in Saturday’s tourney title game against third-seeded Petaluma at Santa Rosa Junior College, spotting the Trojans a 10-9 first-quarter lead. Analy got it rolling in the second, riding the hot hand of Toner-Rodgers (14 points) in an 18-10 surge for a 27-19 halftime advantage. Tripodi got hot in the decisive third period, scoring 12 of his team’s 19 points to open up a 46-32 at the end of three en route to an eventual 58-41 rout.
“It’s great to have won the league and the league tournament,” Page noted. “We’ve been attaining our goals along the way and now we’ll start to focus on our postseason goals. It’s a great bunch and whatever happens we’ll all leave knowing we did what we could and gave everything to the team.”
Leading point-scorers for the Tigers were Toner-Rodgers (21 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists), Tripodi (16 points, 4 assists, 5 steals), Binsfeld (6 points, 3 rebounds), Vogel (4 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals), Newman (4 points, 9 assists), Armstrong (4 points, 6 boards, 2 blocks) and Luke Bertling (3 points).
