Kevin Mullin did his best to keep the Palo Alto boys in the running for the SCVAL De Anza Division basketball title on Tuesday night.
The senior made 14 of 26 field goals (54 percent), needing just three from long range, while scoring a career-high 35 points — one of the best individual performance in school history.
The school single-game scoring record is 46 points by David Weaver in 1993. That broke the previous mark of 39 points set in 1967 by John Bennion.
Mullin also grabbed six rebounds, had five steals and two assists for the Vikings. The standout effort, however, went for naught as Palo Alto dropped a 64-59 decision to host Los Gatos.
The loss was the second straight for the Vikings, who fell into a tie for second with Los Gatos at 4-2. Paly (13-4 overall) trails first-place Fremont (5-1, 13-4) heading into the second half of the season.
Palo Alto will play Los Gatos and Fremont to conclude the regular season.
The Vikings held a 16-10 first-quarter lead and were on top at halftime, 34-28. Paly took a 52-45 lead into the final period, before being outscored by 19-7.
No other Paly player scored in double figures. Sophomore Miles Tention added nine points with senior Alex Dees grabbing nine boards with six assists and four points. Senior starter Johnny Rojahn missed the game.
In the SCVAL El Camino Division, Gunn remained tied for first place with Saratoga following a 52-36 thumping of visiting Cupertino. The Titans (5-1, 11-2) wrapped up the first half of division play with senior Chris Russell leading the way with 17 points. Jeffrey Lee-Heidenreich and Alex Gil-Fernandez each added 12 points for Gunn, which put the game away with a 20-7 fourth quarter.
In the West Bay Athletic League, Sacred Heart Prep won its eighth straight and held on to first place with an 85-57 romp over host Eastside Prep. The Gators (7-0, 15-2) were led by junior Mason Randall’s 24 points with senior Corbin Koch adding 19 points and nine rebounds. Each player made five 3-pointers as SHP made 17 overall.
A 29-14 first quarter put the Gators comfortably in front. Junior Conner Moses contributed 17 points and James McLean added 10. Mitch Martella had nine points, 10 assists and three steals.
Junior guard Chris Southall led the host Panthers (1-6, 11-6) with 18 points with sophomores Aaron Cason and Isaiah East combining for another 25.
In Los Alto Hills, Pinewood held on to second place and knocked Menlo School to third with a 68-65 WBAL triumph. Menlo’s Ben Simon missed a long 3-point attempt at the buzzer, allowing the Panthers (6-1, 12-3) to escape with the win.
The Knights fell to 5-2 (11-5 overall) despite a 26-point outburst by Liam Dunn, who scored 17 points in the second half. Jared Lucian added 15 points for Menlo, which trailed by 35-28 at halftime before rallying in the second half as Pinewood committed 10 of its 18 turnovers in the fourth quarter.
Kyle Murphy led a balanced Pinewood effort with 14 points. Jordan Riches had 12 and Ryan Brice 11. The Panthers made 20 of 25 free throws, a handful in the final moments to hold off the Knights.
In Sunnyvale, Scott Harris tossed in 23 points and Andy Isokpehi added 22 as Priory (3-4, 11-5)held off host King’s Academy, 58-50.
Wrestling
Gunn took a depleted team to Cupertino on Tuesday night and suffered a 42-34 dual-match loss in SCVAL De Anza Division action.
“Unfortunately, six of our 14 starters were out for one reason or another,” said Gunn coach Chris Horpel, in his 12th season with the Titans. “Even still, if one match had gone the other way we could have won. “We fought hard and I was proud of our effort.”
Senior team captain Ian Cramer continued to lead the Titans and registered his 21st win of the season and his 18th fall. Also turning in victories were senior Ebrahim Feghhi (152), sophomore Thomas Chang-Davidson (160) and senior Kirill Demyanenko (285). Juniors Zane Koehler (195) and Ben Cundiff (220) won by forfeit.
Gunn is now 4-3 overall and 1-3 in the De Anza Division.
could you have possibly chosen a more negative headline for such a positive accomplishment of a paly athlete?
Also would be good to add that Paly played without Senior point guard Jonathan Rojahn, a key player for the team
Does anybody know what the top single game scoring marks are for Palo Alto Boys Basketball?
last time we looked the Palo Alto Vikings boys’ basketball team was comprised of 5 players on the court at the same time. Mr. Mullin seems to think it is the kevin mullin vikings. he should remember that he is not the only one on the court and that passing is a key element in the game of basketball. other players are giving up and playing with reduced effort becuase of his selfishness. he seems to be rewarded by the press for not being a team player. it is very uncomfortable to watch. is the team about someone’s record or is it about winning. we are very frustrated with this situation and last night was just another example of selfishness.
X2 Shockingly rude headline. Particularly in the wake of other recent news, it was jarring to see this after reading hundreds of comments about the importance of supporting ALL of our students.
Sometimes players get hot and you’ll want to just feed them the ball until/unless they go cold. Good on Kevin, who I’m sure has no problems dishing to others then.
to answer a question above– 3 passes for sure lay-ups are better than 2 missed three point shots. and, you obviously haven’t seen Mr. Mullin play–this isn’t a one time event. if you were one of the other four players on the court, pretty soon you lose interest in going to the offensive end of the court because you know you will never see the ball down there. Two assists, 26 shots????
Dear anonymous parent,
This is Kevin Mullin. Thank you for voicing your thoughts on the matter of our team. If you cared enough to look at our team’s page on Maxpreps, you’d see that I do share the ball. If you truly think I’m not playing well, I’d love to hear what you think I can do to improve my game.
Best regards,
Kevin
Checking MaxPreps: Kevin Mullin leads the team in assists
http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/palo-alto-vikings-(palo-alto,ca)/basketball/stats.htm
Go Kev !! Seriously, if you are a parent and have a problem with the team or a particular player, have your son talk to the coach about it…don’t vent about it here. Keep playing hard Kevin.
#JeSuisKevin
IMHO – adults/parents should refrain from criticizing *children* in a public forum…especially over sports or a *game*. It’s just a game, not national politics.
Got an issue? Talk to the coach. Better yet, your child (if he has an issue) should talk to the coach and you stay out of it.
amen Crescent Park Dad…now, back to my original point which was why the negative Paly High sports headlines all the time ?? Just today you have this article as well as wrestling picture above with headlines “ Titans Ready to take down Rival Palo Alto” …… give me a break. Just a reminder, you write for “PALO ALTO online”…why don’t you provide the namesake hometown local high school the same courtesy in coverage you provide SHP or Pinewood (or Gunn for that matter). How about some positive headlines? These kids work hard…lets start recognizing that in pa online.
The original article on Pinewood and Menlo School basketball was in the Daily News today. The information here has been lifted from the story.
The anonymous post critical of the 17 or 18 year old kid deserves a “T” for technical foul, or a round of raspberries. And shame on PAW for breeding so many trolls.
Mullin is a player no doubt, a gun in the sense of Lloyd Free or Peter Maravich, but not showy. And as one poster says, a bigger deal might be the sickness that kept a key guy out of the Los Gatos loss. Paly could run the remaining games and compete for CCS. On their best night they could top St. Francis. The Fremont rematch should also be key, 2/20 away. Certainly to beat Gunn, Paly spread it around. Alex “Al Palo Alto” Gil-Fernandez was high for Gunn with 21 to 17 for Mullin, as Rojann and others stepped it up, outside and Mikey Gandey they had no answer to inside.
For reference, Kent Lockhart, Gunn 1981, two-time league champion (two-time CCS player of the year), part of the Three L’s with Lin and Luscutoff, all time All-City, averaged under 20 in high school, ended up to 200 all times CCS after three varsity seasons (including sophomore year at Cubberley, before it merged with Gunn), his high game was 41 in a Christmas tournament, and a sign of Gunn putting it together, struggling. He figured out that raising his teammates would take them (us) to CCS finals, 25-3. Lockhart incidentally after 4 seasons at UTEP under Don Haskins is arguably the smallest person ever drafted by the NBA — the the Knicks — for his defense. He averaged under ten points per game for the Miners.
It would be great to see Gunn and Paly rematch in CCS. Good luck, Vikes and Mullin et al.
(and Peter Jordan in four seasons thru 2006 bested Lockahart’s career totals, which reminds, apropos of the pickle the Weekly and its trolls put #21 in here, rumor is that even Gunn coach B. Williams reached out to Mullin and says “haters gonna hate hate”: allegedly Peter Diepenbrock called Peter Jordan and said “I spent four years designing defenses to stop you, so you have to keep playing, college ball, at UCSB.” Mullin is like Randy Arrillaga of his generation.)
I mean: Paly has won four straight and based on how they pulled away from Gunn Saturday could probably win out their remaining three by avenging on the road even to Los Gatos and Homestead and picking up the Fremont game as well.
In addition to the three’s versus Gunn, they had quite a few back door plays. It seems their big is getting better over the course of the season, could be key in CCS.
To repeat, if Mullin is like a Lockhart he will know how to bring out the best in the other six or seven. (And he is supposed to be pretty smart, Ivy League material; his parents are).
Mark Weiss:
Good knowledge of CCS basketball of the 1970’s and 80’s with your references to Kent Lockhart and Randy Arrillaga.
I never saw Lockhart play, but I did hear a lot about him.I did, however, attend Saratoga High, where Arrillaga played,and saw him play many times in person.He could simply shoot the lights out, and do so from very long range. Has to be in serious consideration as the best shooter to ever lace them up in CCS high school basketball history.
Wow, I remember Kent Lockhart from my art class at Cubberley and wondered what happened to him. Nice guy. He and Eric Rosenberg were our star players. Thanks for the update, Mark.