When Ron Ozorio was an assistant coach on the Sacred Heart Prep girls’ basketball staff back in 1990s, the Gators won four straight state titles under legendary coach Mike Ciardella.
Ben Lefer
Since Ozorio took over the boys’ basketball program at Carlmont in 2017-18, he’s come to find it isn’t as easy as Ciardella’s SHP dynasty made it look.
“I got to ride along and I thought that was the way it always went,” Ozorio said. “And now I find out these state games, it’s hard to get just one (win).”
The reason for Ozorio’s blues is Carlmont had never won a state playoff game — until Tuesday night.
Ozorio’s No. 7-seed Scots (17-8) made it look easy at times in a history-making effort, defeating No. 10 Venture Academy-Stockton 65-45 in the opening round of the CIF Northern California Division IV playoffs. Led by 17 points from senior Luke Paterra, and some shutdown defense by junior Ben Lefer, the Scots were able to contain a Mustangs team (24-7) that averaged 71 points per game this season.
“It was our defensive effort,” Ozorio said. “And everybody contributed.”
Carlmont has reached the state tournament under Ozorio once before. That came three years ago when the Scots reached the 2018-19 CIF Division IV tournament as the No. 4 seed. Hosting the No. 13 seed in Brookside Christian-Stockton proved a tough draw, however, as Carlmont fell 63-58 in the program’s first-ever state playoff game.
“It was tough,” Ozorio said. “And this team, I thought we were burned out three years ago. … I think I worked them too hard. And this year I was conscious of backing off.”
Lefer was the catalyst Tuesday in manning up against Venture Academy’s senior standout Brandon Lee, who averaged a double-double this season with 15.2 points and 10.6 rebounds per game.
“[Lefer] is super athletic and he’s just a tough kid,” Ozorio said. “He’s just a great effort kid. He’s kind of really taken pride in his defense. We continue to put Lefer on the other team’s best player.”
Three Scots scored in double figures, including junior Nate Wong with 14 points, and Lefer with 12.
Now, the Scots will ride their historic win to Redding , where they will match up with No. 2 University Prep in Thursday’s second-round game of the Division IV tourney.
“I think they understood (the historic feat) and they were excited,” Ozorio said. “Hopefully we can bring that energy, because they’re good.”
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(4) comments
Ciardella's rosters were stacked. Rizzo, Circle, Robinson and about 12 others.
Above average coach.
Yep! Private schools can recruit players from anywhere. Publics can't.
Mike Ciardella took two public school girls' basketball teams to the state championship tournament, first as a head coach at Hillsdale and then as an assistant coach at Sequoia.
Like I said - above average coach.
Hillsdale was cherry-picked (ready to win IE grandkids).
Sequoia = Asst. Coach.
Not even close to the quality of Forslund.
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