The Mission Bay High School boys and girls basketball teams completed their regular seasons earning No. 8 and No. 14 seeds, respectively, in the playoffs.
The boys squad finished with a 19-8 record, which is their best season since the 2017-18 campaign when they went 27-6 and won the CIF San Diego Open Division title over Foothills Christian. The team, led by head coach Marshawn Cherry, started off hot winning 10 of their first 12 games including a 40-point victory over Carlsbad, a 67-point win over Chula Vista, and a 55-point win over Sweetwater.
“I’m very pleased with our guys,” said Cherry. “Coming into the year we didn’t know where we were going to be after losing two of our leading scorers who transferred over to Mater Dei, so it was up in the air. We knew we had good young talent and we weren’t sure if they were developed but they stepped up big time.”
The Buccaneers faced Mater Dei Catholic High School twice this season beating the team from Chula Vista by 21 points in their first matchup and by 20 points in the rematch. The Bucs cooled off somewhat splitting their next eight games including suffering their only back-to-back losses of the season versus St. Augustine on Jan. 14 and San Diego High School on Jan. 18.
They were able to bounce back quickly though winning five of their final eight matches to end the regular season, which included a payback blowout victory against the Cavers on Feb. 8 by a score of 80-57.
“We did a good job adapting,” Cherry added. “The administration at our school has been very good at helping us make sure we have the things we need to be successful.”
GIRLS BASKETBALL
As for the girls team, despite not having a memorable season, their side was able to get some noteworthy wins including a dramatic two-point victory over Madison High School on Dec. 21 followed up with a suspenseful one-point home victory over La Jolla High School on Dec. 23.
They also came out on top with blowout wins over Foothills Christian, and Clairemont High School along with a road victory against Mar Vista on Dec. 15. There were also several close matches that could have gone either way throughout the season including games against Valhalla High School in the season opener where they fell 44-38, along with Bayfront Charter High School and Kearny High School where they also came up six points short finishing the regular season 5-17 overall.
The team’s final regular-season record was still a marked improvement from the 2020-2021 season when they went finished 0-18.
