Sports

13th-seeded Sunny Hills boys basketball team upsets 4th-seeded Monte Vista 68-51 in first round of CIF state playoffs

Henry Lee, Web Editor-in-Chief

March 2, 2022

Junior point guard Chad Nguyen dribbles toward a Garden Grove player Feb 22. Even though the Lancers lost their semifinal CIF-Southern Section Division 4 game, the team won its first state CIF playoff game, since 2004, on March 1.

Despite falling short of reaching the CIF-Southern Section Division 4 championship round last week, the 13th-seeded Sunny Hills boys basketball team upset fourth-seeded Monte Vista 68-51 in the first round of state CIF playoffs Tuesday, March 1, at Spring Valley in San Diego County,

“It was a great win for us,” boys basketball head coach Joe Ok said. “After what happened in the semifinals against Garden Grove last week, I was happy for us to be able to bounce back and pick up our first state tournament win since 2004.”

Ok credited his players for neutralizing Monte Vista’s star players and in turn making their shots at their end of the court during their away game, which the Lancers led from start to finish.

“We were prepared well on how to guard them,” said point guard junior Chad Nguyen, who scored 14 points. “Everybody was making their shots, and we were able to get their best players into foul trouble.”

With the road win, the Lancers (25-8) will once again have to travel Thursday, March 3, to play fifth-seeded Millikan High School (16-18) in Long Beach at 6 p.m.

School officials have also announced a rooter bus available to take students to Millikan at 4:30 p.m. with an expected return time of 8:30 p.m., according to an email today, March 2, from assistant principal Hilda Arredondo.

Sunny Hills and 16th-seeded Valley Torah (28-3) – an all-boys Jewish school in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County – are the only two lower seeds remaining in their bracket.

If both teams win, they would square off in the semis on Saturday, March 5.

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About the Contributor

Henry Lee, Web Editor-in-Chief

After serving as the assistant sports editor during the 2021-2022 school year, senior Henry Lee looks forward to starting his fourth year serving as the Web Editor-in-Chief for The Accolade. While Lee focused on writing articles for the sports section the previous year, he hopes to cover a wider range of stories to capture the multiple aspects of the Sunny Hills student body. When Lee isn't working for The Accolade, you can find him working with school clubs, playing volleyball or attempting to take a nap.