Sheldon Gets Third Win Over Jesuit to Repeat as Section D-I Champions

The Sheldon Huskies came into Saturday's CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I boys basketball final against at Power Balance Pavilion as the defending champion and their experience showed as they beat the Marauders 84-69 to repeat as section champs.

Sheldon senior , who has committed to play at Texas-El Paso next season, led all scorers with 27 points and added 14 rebounds. Senior forward Ramon Eaton and sophomore guard D'erryl Williams each finished with 18 points for the Huskies, who won the school's third section title since 2007.

Jesuit junior guards Akachi Okugo and Parker Uu each scored 17 points and Brian Glodowski added 15 to lead the Marauders, who, like Sheldon, also advance to next week's NorCal tournament.

Sheldon, who had won two earlier Delta River League games against Jesuit by three points each, won Saturday by having the advantage in rebounds 41-32 and forcing Jesuit into more turnovers by a total of 22-15.

"We did a great job handling the pressure tonight," Sheldon head coach Joey Rollings said. "Everyone attacked the basket...we had a little bit of luck on our side."

Jesuit got off to a good start and led 19-14 after the first quarter but Sheldon got in a groove to lead 37-35 at halftime. The Huskies broke things open in the third quarter, outscoring the Marauders 21 to 9 to lead 58-44.

It was just too much Darius Nelson all night long.

"Coach gave us a plan and we took advantage," said Nelson, the younger brother of former Sheldon hoops star DeMarcus Nelson, who played at Duke before stints in the NBA. "We just came out and played hard."

Sheldon's record now stands at 23-7 on the season while Jesuit is 22-9.

"The ball didn't bounce our way...and Sheldon played really well," Jesuit head coach Greg Harcos said. "But we live to fight another day."

Sheldon opens up the NorCal tournament as a No. 3 seed at home Thursday against the winner of a Tuesday game between Santa Teresa of San Jose and Washington of San Francisco. Jesuit, the No. 5 seed, opens up Thursday at No. 4 Oakland High School. Franklin of Elk Grove is the No. 9 seed and opens up Tuesday at No. 8 Serra of San Mateo with the winner playing No. 1 Castro Valley on Thursday.

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Notes: The Jesuit student fan section had more of a turnout than Sheldon's though that likely was due to the fact that fans for St. Francis, Jesuit's sister school, stayed around after the Troubadours won their Division-I section championship against Lincoln of Stockton right before the Jesuit-Sheldon game...Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans watched the boys D-I final from along one of the baselines.