Legionnaires win basketball league title

For the first time in school history, Bonsall High School's basketball team is a league champion.

The Legionnaires concluded Sierra League and regular-season play May 24 with a 61-54 home win over Bayfront Charter. The result gave Bonsall a final league record of 8-0 and a regular-season overall record of 15-5.

"The boys were determined," said Bonsall coach Chuck Colletti.

Prior to the showdown against Bayfront Charter, the Legionnaires had games May 20 at home against Coastal Academy and May 21 at High Tech High North County. "They knew that they had to win those games," Colletti said.

The May 20 game had a 26-26 halftime score. Bonsall had a 15-3 scoring advantage in the third quarter which was sufficient to hold off the Stingrays' fourth period in which Coastal Academy outscored Bonsall by an 18-10 margin.

"We didn't play awfully well, but our defense came through again for us and we won the game," Colletti said. "The shots weren't falling, but our defense played well. The game was never really in jeopardy."

The final score was 51-47. Being outscored in the fourth quarter is often the case for a winning team since the team with the lead is focusing on ball control and clock management and the team with the deficit is focusing on catching up, including shots from behind the three-point line. "We defended the three-point arc pretty good that night," Colletti said.

Bonsall's leading scorers were junior Emil Watkins with 16 points and sophomore Zach Jordan with 14 points. Watkins added 10 rebounds.

May 20 was designated as Senior Night for the Legionnaires. Billy Rahman is the team's only senior. Rahman scored six points against the Stingrays, grabbed seven rebounds, led the team with seven assists, and had four steals to share the team lead with Jordan. "He just played a solid game. Probably the biggest thing for him was his leadership qualities led us to the victory," Colletti said.

The game against High Tech High North County ended as a 56-47 Bonsall victory. "Our defense has basically played well all year," Colletti said.

Rahman had 15 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, and two steals; junior Elijah Watkins scored 12 points, and freshman Nathan Weinbrenner led the team with 10 rebounds. "It was balanced scoring throughout the team," Colletti said.

The winner of the May 24 game would win the league championship; a Bayfront Charter win would have created a tie for first in the final standings and, had the Sharks won the second game, they likely would have been the designated league champion guaranteed a home playoff game.

"We had a big crowd, very enthusiastic crowd," Colletti said.

The Sharks made their first four shots, two of which were three-pointers, and had a 10-0 lead prior to the first Bonsall points. Bonsall recovered to hold a 21-20 lead at the end of the first period and a 44-27 halftime advantage. The final three points of the second quarter were scored when Rahman made a half-court shot at the buzzer.

"Bayfront Charter made a big charge the second half," Colletti said.

"Chris Cawood is an excellent coach, and the boys on their team came out pretty fired up in the second half," Colletti said. "With everything on the line, they made a valiant effort."

Colletti's halftime talk to his team included a remark to provide defensive play to win the game. "Once it got down to the stretch, the last three minutes, four minutes, we definitely tightened up our defense," Colletti said.

Fouling a player on the leading team will send that player to the free throw line for a one-and-one opportunity if his team is in the bonus, but that also ends that possession before the shot clock can be run down. "We did not shoot well from the free throw line," Colletti said. "They kept fouling us at the end, and we kept missing."

Bayfront Charter ended the regular season with a 12-2 overall record. Bonsall was responsible for both of those losses.

Rahman ended the night with 24 points, six assists, and three steals. "Pretty way to go out after your last regular-season game after playing four years at Bonsall," Colletti said.

Bonsall ended the regular season with the best overall record in school history, the Legionnaires' first undefeated league season, Bonsall's first league championship, and Bonsall's first playoff selection. "A lot of firsts," Colletti said.