On the wings of Wooten, Manteca claims first CIF State title

Kenny Wooten soared through the lane, putting the Manteca High boys basketball team on his back as he glided toward the rim.

Glided toward history.

Wooten scored a game-high 26 points and punctuated the Buffaloes’ 60-51 victory over Ayala of Chino Hills in the CIF State Division III championship Thursday with a cocked-back, two-handed flush in transition in the final minutes.

As the last few seconds slipped off the clock, Manteca head coach Brett Lewis turned toward his bench and screamed, slapping hands with each member of his coaching staff.

Soon his team, a group that finished second in the Valley Oak League and Sac-Joaquin Section Division III tournament, was jumping at midcourt.

“When we came here, we knew Manteca as a football school. For at least a year, we’ll be a basketball school,” said Lewis, an East Union graduate and former coach at his alma mater. “It’s insane. I grew up in the town of Manteca and never imagined a state championship team in the city, let alone the team I’m coaching. It’s unreal.”

Tydus Verhoeven had 11 points and 12 rebounds, while center Anand Hundal had nine points and 12 rebounds for the history-making Buffaloes, now 29-6.

John Edgar had 21 points and Miles President 17 for Ayala (34-4), the dejected Southern California champion.

Manteca is the first basketball team in Manteca Unified School District history to win a CIF State championship and it rose to that level with the arrival of Wooten, a springy 6-foot-9 transfer from Stagg High in Stockton.

Wooten was forced to sit out his entire junior season after the Sac-Joaquin Section deemed his transfer athletically motivated.

“I never liked sitting out,” Wooten said. “No one ever would. I’ve been working on my craft and preparing myself for this moment.”

While Wooten sat, Lewis began putting a program in place, establishing a system around 6-9 center Hundal and Verhoeven, a 6-8 junior guard.

Wooten was the missing piece, and it showed Thursday at Sleep Train Arena.

In two visits to the NBA arena, Wooten’s star shined the brightest. He had a season-high 26 points in a section final loss to Weston Ranch on March 4, and then flirted with a triple-double against Ayala’s Bulldogs.

He had 18 rebounds and nine blocked shots to go along with his 26 points.

“He got off the ground so fast,” said Ayala senior Austen Awosika.

Added Edgar, a Southern California player of the year: “He’s one of the best athletes I’ve played against.”

Wooten’s follow-up slam to end the third quarter helped stymie Ayala’s charge. The Bulldogs erased a double-digit deficit with a wave of three-pointers and trailed by only three, 41-38, with six minutes remaining.

Manteca answered with a 10-3 spurt of its own and then sealed the win on the wings of Wooten, whose fast-break slam brought The Herd — Manteca’s rowdy student section — to its feet.

“I like playing on the big stage. I like playing against the best competition,” Wooten said. “That’s when I feel like I need to up my level of play. I’m glad I’ve been able to do it.”

Manteca couldn’t have asked for a better start.

After losing the opening tip, Wooten blocked a shot to take back possession, and then showcased his ever-evolving offensive game over the next seven-plus minutes.

Wooten scored eight of the team’s first 10 points, including a one-handed flush to make it 6-0. Moments later, he floated in a hook to extend Manteca’s opening surge to 8-0.

Ayala missed its first six shots, including a point-blank layup by Awosika, who was harassed by Angel Perez throughout.

In an NBA arena famous for swallowing up shooting teams, the Bulldogs were the latest victim. Ayala was 4 of 12 in the first quarter and trailed 15-10. Ayala shot just 30.8 percent (8 of 26) from the floor and 1 of 10 from beyond the three-point arc in the first half.

Wooten was just getting started.

He found Hundal for a back-door layup to start the second quarter and then scored off an offensive rebound to give the Buffaloes a double-digit lead.

The advantage grew to as many as 17 as Manteca got all its parts rolling in the second quarter. Perez scored five consecutive points – and seven in the quarter – as the Buffaloes closed the first half on an 18–9 run.

Manteca outrebounded Ayala 21-5 in the first half, highlighted by a double-double from Wooten. He had 13 points and 13 rebounds by the break.

The Buffaloes left town for Sacramento behind a police-and-firefighter escort, powered by the cheers of hundreds who lined Yosemite Avenue to see off the NorCal Division III champions.

Players gathered in the gymnasium before noon, each doing what they could to tamp down the anxiety associated with this stage of the postseason.

Verhoeven lay sprawled out along the baseline, his thumbs working overtime on his phone. Wooten rehearsed free throws with teammate Inder Randhawa, while Perez and freshman Jorge Cedano playfully hoisted half-court shots.

“You haven’t made one all year,” one of the Manteca assistants said, chastising Perez, a defensive dynamo and unsung hero in the Buffaloes’ deep postseason run.

Following the decisive 69-57 loss to Valley Oak League rival Weston Ranch in the final of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III final, Manteca returned to Sleep Train Arena with three straight wins to its credit. Each was a little more impressive than the last, too.

The Buffaloes needed 18 points from Dwight Young in the final 3 1/2 minutes beat Albany 59-52 in the second round of the NorCal tournament.

Three days later, Young knocked down six free throws in the final 40 seconds to secure a 60-54 win over Archbishop Riordan, the Central Coast Section’s most decorated program.

In the final, Manteca pummeled another Bay Area power, stifling Bishop O’Dowd with a 43-19 push in the second half to secure the first-ever CIF State basketball final appearance by a Manteca Unified school, a 70-45 win.

The Buffaloes finished the job with an adopted son as its foreman.

“I wanted to do this for the city,” Wooten said.

This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 1:42 PM with the headline "On the wings of Wooten, Manteca claims first CIF State title."