The Barstow girls basketball team heads into the unknown

BARSTOW • The Barstow High School girls basketball team is flying blind today.

The Aztecs are entering the second round of the CIF Division III State Championships against Mt. Miguel at 7 p.m. today in Spring Valley, and the one thing they are sure of is that they don’t know much about the Matadors. Mt. Miguel’s Maxpreps.com, a high school athletics website, page doesn’t include a roster, statistics or pictures of the team. Barstow coach Derrick Delton said that when he checked San Diego newspaper articles on the Matadors all they listed was the scores of the games. Delton said he hasn’t even seen tape on the team.

However, none of this is surprising as Mt. Miguel plays in the CIF’s San Diego Section, while Barstow plays in the Southern Section. The sections border each other, but teams rarely play outside of their sections until the playoffs.

Delton summed up his take on the Matadors at the end of the Aztecs’ practice Wednesday evening.
“What do I know about Mt. Miguel?” Delton said making a hand gesture estimating an inch. “About that much. They are a good team, and we are a good team. Can we beat them? Heck yeah.”

Delton wasn’t exaggerating when he said the Matadors are a tough team. They have won the Grossmont/Valley league each season, lost only one league game and taken the San Diego Section five times in the last 10 years. Mt. Miguel is the No. 2 seed in the Southern bracket of the tournament and the reigning section champion.
Although the Matadors will present a challenge to the Aztecs, Barstow has already knocked off one section champion this week. The Aztecs beat Ridgeview, the Central Section champions, 73-62 on Tuesday to earn a spot in the second round.

Barstow point guard and senior Stefanie Dado said she thinks the Aztecs can win if they can control the pace of the game.

“I’m kind of nervous because we don’t know anything about them,” Dado said. “If we can stick together and play our style it’ll be a close game, but we can win. This is our second chance. As a senior I thought I was done with basketball after the (CIF-Southern Section) semifinals. We got this chance for a reason so we need to take advantage of it.”

Delton said they will be sticking with what has worked for them all season: full-court pressure, up-tempo offense and tight defense. Barstow used the strategy to wear Ridgeview down in the first half of Tuesday’s game. The teams were tied 33-33 at halftime, but the Aztecs’ speed allowed them to get turnover and easy points in the second half. Barstow led by as much as 20 in the second half of the game.

Barstow may not know much about Mt. Miguel, but the Matadors’ coach Robbie Sandoval said he’s in the same situation heading into today’s game.

“You don’t really know what you’re up against when you get to this point in the playoffs,” Sandoval said. “Generally you just try to keep doing what you have.”

Sandoval said he plans to run a half-court offense and zone defense during the game. One player the Aztecs will need to watch for is sophomore forward Shay Young. Young is averaging 15 points and 8 rebounds a game.

If Barstow gets past Mt. Miguel they will travel to face either Muir or Inglewood at 7 p.m. on Saturday. The Aztecs have a history with both teams. Muir beat Barstow 57-39 in the CIF-SS semifinals on February 27 at the Jim Parks Gymnasium at Barstow Community College. The Aztecs advanced to the state playoffs as one of eight top teams from the Southern Section. Inglewood knocked Barstow out of the CIF-SS quarterfinals with a 62-46 win last season.